Peter Pumphrey
Peter Pumphrey is a retired environmental prosecutor living near Bishop, California. He is the President of the Eastern Sierra Audubon Society. Peter is also the Treasurer of the State Bar of California Environmental Law Section, a member of the Board of Directors of the Sierra Nevada Alliance, an Advisory Board member of the Eastern Sierra Land Trust and the chair of the Chalfant Valley Fire Department District Commission.
He is a licensed fishing guide and teaches fly fishing and contributes to California Fly Fishing magazine. He works in the household garden, and hikes, fishes, backpacks and skis in the Sierra Nevada.
For the past three years, the Eastern Sierra Audubon Chapter has been working along with other stakeholders and organizations to develop a habitat conservation plan for the Owens Lake lakebed. This effort has evolved into a process for the development of a master plan for Owens Lake which will address permanent habitat designation and preservation, on-going dust control management and possible solar energy generation.
Abstract: Dust Storms from a Dry Lakebed Drives Owens Lake Mitigation and Restoration Efforts
Located beneath the peaks of the southern Sierra Nevada, Owens Lake is the remnant of the
Pleistocene era. The lake began to recede at the end of the last glacial age. This process
was accelerated by the opening of the City of Los Angeles Department of Water and Power
Owens Valley aqueduct in 1913. The diversion of the inflow of the Owens River resulted in the
drying of the lakebed by 1924.
The lake shriveled to a brine pool surrounded by friable alkali soils and became the source
of huge dust storms which created plumes as high as 10,000 feet in altitude and drifted for
150 miles downwind. The loss of more than one million tons of lakebed per year made the lake
the largest source of PM10 emissions in the United States.
As a result, Owens Dry Lake was designated by the EPA as a “serious non-attainment site
pursuant to the Clean Air Act. The City of Los Angeles was required to mitigate the air quality
effects of its water diversions. The mitigation effort is subject to oversight by the Great Basin
Air Pollution Control District and DWP activities on the lakebed lie within the jurisdiction of
the California State Lands Commission and California Department of Fish and Game. Dust
control has been accomplished through the introduction of managed vegetation and
application of water creating shallow flooding of more than 40 square miles of surface.
These control measures have been successful at significantly reducing the dust problem.
The return of water to the lakebed brought a return of large populations of shorebirds and
migrating waterfowl. In addition, the managed vegetation areas have provided shelter to
many varities of songbirds. The habitat is so valuable that, in 2001, Owens Lake received
designation as an “Important Bird Area” by the Audubon Society. In 2008, the Eastern Sierra
Audubon Society initiated a process aimed at preserving the Owens Lake wildlife habitat.
Now, three years later, the Department of Water and Power is sponsoring a collaborative
process to design a master plan for the future of the lake which will include permanently
protected habitat while the remaining portions of the lakebed are managed for dust control
and, possibly, for solar energy generation
The Unfolding Iris by Charles Uibel
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