The little-known groundwater Los Angeles pumps in the Owens Valley, and the tribes who want it backIn the Owens Valley, Los Angeles not only sip...

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The little-known groundwater Los Angeles pumps in the Owens Valley, and the tribes who want it backIn the Owens Valley, Los Angeles not only sip...
The little-known groundwater Los Angeles pumps in the Owens Valley, and the tribes who want it back
In the Owens Valley, Los Angeles not only siphons water from streams, but also pumps groundwater from wells.
Leaders of Native tribes are calling for the city to take less water and are pushing for negotiations on water rights. They say pumping from wells has dried up springs and meadows.
The L.A. Department of Water and Power says it is taking steps to ensure protection of the environment.
BISHOP, Calif. — In a desert landscape dominated by sagebrush, a piece of Los Angeles’ immense water empire stands behind a chain-link fence: a hydrant-like piece of metal atop a well. The electric pump hums as it sends water gushing into a canal, forming a stream in the desert.

This well is one of 105 that L.A. owns across the Owens Valley. They were drilled decades ago, many of them when the city opened a second giant pipeline, nearly doubling its famous aqueduct to send more water south.

Water flows out of a pipe
Water pumped from one of Los Angeles’ wells flows out of a pipe and into a canal near Bishop.
While many Californians know the story of how L.A. seized the valley’s river water in the early 1900s and drained Owens Lake, fewer know that the city also pulls up a significant amount of water from underground. The pumping has led to resentment among leaders of Native tribes, who say it is leaving their valley parched and harming the environment.

“We’ve seen so many impacts from groundwater pumping,” said Teri Red Owl, an Indigenous leader. “There’s a lot of areas that are dewatered, that are dried up.”

The valley spreads out at the base of the Sierra Nevada more than 200 miles north of Los Angeles. Once it had so many springs, streams and wetlands that the Paiute and Shoshone people called their homeland Payahuunadü, “the land of flowing water.” Today, tribal members say L.A.’s extensive use of water has transformed the landscape, desiccating many springs and meadows, killing native grasses and altering the ecosystem.

Attached link

https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2025-10-18/owens-valley-tribes-water?utm_source=flipboard&utm_content=topic/environment

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