Owens Lake Dust

“Owens Valley Dust to Settle, but Not Fears,” July 31: I would like to make clear the Department of Water and Power’s position. Our mission at Owens Lake is to control dust at the earliest possible time. We are committed to provide necessary water supplies in order to accomplish this goal and intend to work with local residents and others to ensure potential negative impacts do not occur.

Los Angeles has funded millions of dollars in research to find effective ways to curb the dust that blows off the dry lake bed on windy days. Cooperating with the local air pollution agency, Los Angeles has undertaken a project to begin this enormous task. This first phase of the project will result in covering 13.5 square miles of the dry lake bed with water. To illustrate how large and ambitious this is, the current project area is as large as the cities of Santa Monica and Beverly Hills combined. Future phases of the project could expand the area to over 22 square miles.

With regard to Owens Valley ground-water pumping, Los Angeles is not proposing to use any ground water for dust mitigation at this time. We continue to work with Inyo County to develop a mutually acceptable pumping proposal this year.

S. DAVID FREEMAN

General Manager, DWP

Los Angeles