The Mono Lake Committee (MLC) is an

environmental organization An environmental organization is an organization coming out of the conservation or environmental movements that seeks to protect, analyse or monitor the environment against misuse or degradation from human forces. In this sense the environment ...

based in

Lee Vining, California Lee Vining (formerly Leevining, Poverty Flat, and Lakeview) is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Mono County, California, Mono County, California, United States. It is located south-southeast of Bridgeport, Californ ...

in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. Its mission is to preserve

Mono Lake Mono Lake ( ) is a saline soda lake in Mono County, California, formed at least 760,000 years ago as a terminal lake in an endorheic basin. The lack of an outlet causes high levels of salts to accumulate in the lake which make its water alk ...

, by reducing diversions of water from the

Eastern Sierra The Eastern Sierra is a region in California comprising the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada, which includes Mono and Inyo Counties. The main thoroughfare is U.S. Route 395, which passes through Bridgeport, Lee Vining, Bishop, Big Pine, Inde ...

watersheds by the

Los Angeles Department of Water and Power The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) is the largest municipal utility in the United States with 8,100 megawatts of electric generating capacity (2021-2022) and delivering an average of 435 million gallons of water per day to more ...

(LADWP).

Mono Lake

Mono Lake is an

alkaline lake A soda lake or alkaline lake is a lake on the strongly alkaline side of neutrality, typically with a pH, pH value between 9 and 12. They are characterized by high concentrations of carbonate salts, typically sodium carbonate (and related salt com ...

east of

Yosemite National Park Yosemite National Park ( ) is an American national park in California, surrounded on the southeast by Sierra National Forest and on the northwest by Stanislaus National Forest. The park is managed by the National Park Service and covers an ar ...

, largely fed by streams from the

Sierra Nevada The Sierra Nevada () is a mountain range in the Western United States, between the Central Valley of California and the Great Basin. The vast majority of the range lies in the state of California, although the Carson Range spur lies primarily ...

; it has no natural outlet. In 1919 the level of the lake peaked at 6427' above sea level. Birds bred and nested on a few volcanic islands in the lake, sustained by the extensive

brine shrimp ''Artemia'' is a genus of aquatic crustaceans also known as brine shrimp. It is the only genus in the family Artemiidae. The first historical record of the existence of ''Artemia'' dates back to the first half of the 10th century AD from Urmia La ...

and alkali flies, which also attracted large numbers of migratory birds. In 1941, the LADWP began redirecting water from the streams feeding Mono Lake into the

Los Angeles Aqueduct The Los Angeles Aqueduct system, comprising the Los Angeles Aqueduct (Owens Valley aqueduct) and the Second Los Angeles Aqueduct, is a water conveyance system, built and operated by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. The Owens Valley ...

. As time passed, this both reduced the level of the lake and dried out the lower sections of the source streams. By 1981 the level of the lake had been reduced to 6372' above sea level, with the lake's volume cut in half, and its salinity doubled. Negit Island, a breeding site for birds, developed a land bridge and became susceptible to land-based predators such as coyotes.

Formation of the Mono Lake Committee

In 1975, David Winkler, Jefferson Burch, and Christine Weigen obtained a grant from the

NSF NSF may stand for: Political organizations *National Socialist Front, a Swedish National Socialist party *NS-Frauenschaft, the women's wing of the former German Nazi party *National Students Federation, a leftist Pakistani students' political gr ...

, with help and encouragement from ecologist David Gaines, to study the ecology of Mono Lake. Gaines had found that, starting in 1941, LADWP's diversions of water from Mono Lake's inflow creeks had caused it to lose half its volume and double its salinity. These changes, Gaines reported, reduced the ability of the lake to support its saline ecosystem. During 1976–1977, Gaines witnessed the lake's water level drop even further, and he determined to take action. The committee was founded in March 1978 by Gaines, David Winkler, Sally Judy and Mark Ross.

Gray Brechin Gray A. Brechin (born September 2, 1947) is an American geographer, architectural historian, and author. He is the founder and Project Scholar of The Living New Deal based at the U.C. Berkeley Department of Geography. Brechin is a frequent and popul ...

soon became the committee's first director; he joined Gaines and others in lobbying California politicians Mono Lake is an important habitat for migratory birds (including the

California gull The California gull (''Larus californicus'') is a medium-sized gull, smaller on average than the herring gull but larger on average than the ring-billed gull, though it may overlap in size greatly with both. Description Adults are similar in ap ...

). The lowering of the water level endangered the bird nesting grounds on

Negit Island Negit Island is an island in Mono Lake. Negit (along with nearby Paoha Island) is a volcanic cone less than 2000 years old. It can be considered to be the northernmost of the Mono Craters. Negit is composed of three dark dacite lava flows. Neg ...

in the middle of the lake: a land bridge had formed, which allowed predators to attack the bird nests.

LADWP Lawsuit

In 1979, the MLC, along with the

Audubon Society The National Audubon Society (Audubon; ) is an American non-profit environmental organization dedicated to conservation of birds and their habitats. Located in the United States and incorporated in 1905, Audubon is one of the oldest of such organ ...

filed suit in

Mono County, California Mono County ( ) is a county located in the east central portion of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 13,195, making it the fourth-least populous county in California. The county seat is Bridgeport. The coun ...

Superior Court In common law systems, a superior court is a court of general jurisdiction over civil and criminal legal cases. A superior court is "superior" in relation to a court with limited jurisdiction (see small claims court), which is restricted to civil ...

, claiming that LADWP's water diversions violated the

public trust doctrine The public trust doctrine is the principle that the sovereign holds in trust for public use some Natural resource, resources such as shoreline between the high and low tide lines, regardless of private property ownership. Origins The Roman law, ...

: that all navigable water must be managed for the benefit of everyone. In 1983, MLC won the argument in front of the

California Supreme Court The Supreme Court of California is the highest and final court of appeals in the courts of the U.S. state of California. It is headquartered in San Francisco at the Earl Warren Building, but it regularly holds sessions in Los Angeles and Sacra ...

, who directed that the public trust doctrine overrides prior water rights. Bruce Dodge, of Morrison and Foerster, served as the pro-bono attorney in the case. Eventually, multiple litigations were adjudicated in 1994, by the

California State Water Resources Control Board The California State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) is one of six branches of the California Environmental Protection Agency. History This regulatory program has had the status of an official government department since the 1950s. The Sta ...

. In that ruling, LADWP was required to let enough water into Mono Lake to raise the lake level above the then-current level of below the 1941 level. As of 2018, the water level in Mono Lake has risen of the required . Los Angeles made up for the lost water through state-funded conservation and recycling projects.

Current Status and Activities

The Mono Lake Committee currently monitors the status of the lake and the compliance of the LADWP with the court decision, supports scientific research in the Mono Lake region, and is actively working on restoring the incoming stream environments. They also provide extensive educational activities to schools and the general public, and maintain an office, information center, and bookstore in Lee Vining, CA that also serves as the Lee Vining Chamber of Commerce.

References

External links