| Owens Lake | |
|---|---|
| Patsiata (Mono) | |
 View of partially-filled Owens Lake (top-right) fromWhitney Portal | |
  Owens Lake | |
| Location | Sierra Nevada Inyo County, California, United States |
| Coordinates | 36°26′00″N117°57′03″W / 36.4332°N 117.9509°W /36.4332; -117.9509 |
| Type | Flat |
| Primary inflows | Owens River Natural springs and wells |
| Basin countries | United States |
| Max. length | 17.5 mi (28.2 km) |
| Max. width | 10 mi (16 km) |
| Max. depth | 3 ft (0.91 m) |
| Surface elevation | 3,556 ft (1,084 m)[1] |
| References | GNIS feature ID 272820[1] |
Owens Lake is adry lake in theOwens Valley on the eastern side of theSierra Nevada inInyo County, California. It is about 5 miles (8.0 km) south ofLone Pine. Unlike most dry lakes in theBasin and Range Province that have been dry for thousands of years, Owens held significant water until 1913, when much of theOwens River was diverted into theLos Angeles Aqueduct, causing the lake todesiccate by 1926.[2] In 2006, 5% of the water flow was restored. As of 2013, it is the largest single source of dust pollution in the United States,[3] and has been known since at least the 1990s as a pervasive source of fine alkaline dust containing harmful levels of particulates and chemicals.[2]
Owens Lake was given its present name by the explorerJohn C. Frémont, in honor of one of his guides,Richard Owens.[4] The lake is calledPatsiata by theMono people.[5]
During the latePleistocene, Owens Lake could reach a depth of 200 feet (61 m) and formed part of an interconnected series of seven lakes, hundreds of miles long.[6]: 51 The increased inflow from the Owens River, from melting glaciers of the post-Ice Age Sierra Nevada, caused Owens Lake to overflow south through Rose Valley into another now-dry lake bed named China Lake in theIndian Wells Valley, nearRidgecrest and atown that sports its name.[6] In the late 1800s and early 1900s, the depth of the lake varied between 7 and 15 metres (23 and 49 ft), covering an area of around 280 square kilometres (110 sq mi),[2] and sometimes overflowed to the south, after which the water would flow into theMojave Desert. By 1905, the lake's water was "excessively saline".[7]
Starting in 1913, the river and streams that fed Owens Lake were diverted byLos Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) into the Los Angeles Aqueduct, and the lake level started to drop quickly.[8] As the lake dried, soda processing at nearbyKeeler, California, switched from relatively cheap chemical methods to more expensive physical ones. The Natural Soda Products Company sued the city of Los Angeles and built a new plant with a $15,000 settlement. A fire destroyed this plant shortly after it was built, but the company rebuilt it on the dry lake bed in the 1920s.[citation needed]
During the unusually wet winter of 1937, LADWP diverted water from theaqueduct into the lake bed, flooding the soda plant. Because of this, the courts ordered the city to pay $154,000. After an unsuccessful appeal to the state supreme court in 1941, LADWP built theLong Valley Dam, which impoundedLake Crowley forflood control.[8]
A 2004 court order required theLADWP to reestablish a small flow from the river into the lake.[9][10] In winter 2006, theLos Angeles Department of Water and Power restored 5% of the pre-aqueduct flow to the river by court order, allowing theOwens River Gorge, the river bed in the valley, and Owens Lake to contain a small amount of water.[9] The lake was the epicenter of a magnitude 5.8 earthquake that occurred on June 24, 2020.[11]
In 2022, the Great Basin Unified Air Pollution Control District successfully sued LADWP for the department's refusal to implement "low-impact" pollution controls at Owens Lake in an area with sensitive Native American cultural resources.[12]
In 2023, the lake flooded for the first time in over 100 years due to the numerous storms that struck California during thefirst three months of 2023, increasing in volume from 5,000 acre-feet to about 50,000 acre-feet.[13][14][15][16] Environmental groups are currently[when?] working with Indigenous leaders in hopes of keeping more water in the lake.[17]
The lake is a largesalt flat whose surface is made of a mixture ofclay,sand, and a variety ofminerals includinghalite, burkeite,mirabilite,thenardite, andtrona. In wet years, these minerals form a chemical soup in the form of a smallbrine pond within the dry lake. When conditions are right, bright pinkhalophilic (salt-loving)archaea spread across the salty lake bed. Also, on especially hot summer days when ground temperatures exceed 150°F (66 °C), water is driven out of thehydrates on the lake bed creating a muddy brine. More commonly, periodicwinds stir up noxiousalkalidust storms that carry away as much as four million tons (3.6 million metric tons) of dust from the lake bed each year, causing respiratory problems in nearby residents.[8][18] The dust includes carcinogens, such ascadmium,nickel, andarsenic.[19]
The LADWP and theCalifornia State Lands Commission own most of the Owens Lake bed, though a few small parcels along the historic western shoreline are privately owned.[20] CDFW is using mitigation funds fromCalTrans to enhance habitat.[citation needed]
As part of anair quality mitigation settlement, LADWP is shallow flooding 27 square miles (69.9 km2) of the salt pan to try to help minimize alkali dust storms and further adverse health effects. There are also about 3.5 square miles (9.1 km2) of managed vegetation being used as a dust control measure. The vegetation consists ofsaltgrass, which is a native perennial grass highly tolerant of the salt and boron levels in the lake sediments.[21] Gravel covers are also used.[22]
This once-bluesaline lake was an important feeding and resting stop for millions ofwaterfowl each year. During a visit to Owens Lake in 1917,Joseph Grinnell from theMuseum of Vertebrate Zoology in Berkeley reported, "Great numbers of water birds are in sight along the lake shore--avocets, phalaropes, ducks. Large flocks of shorebirds in flight over the water in the distance, wheeling about show in mass, now silvery now dark, against the gray-blue of the water. There must be literally thousands of birds within sight of this one spot".[23]
Owens Lake is recognized as anImportant Bird Area in California by theNational Audubon Society.[20] At the shore, a chain ofwetlands, fed by springs andartesian wells, keep part of the former Owens Lakeecosystem alive.Snowy plovers nest at Owens along with several thousandsnow geese andducks. As a result of dust mitigation efforts, shallow flooding of the lake bed has created habitats approximately 3 feet (0.9 m) deep.[24] This water, although seasonally applied, is helping to buoy the lake's ecosystem causing hope in conservationists that an expanded shallow flooding program could do even more. There are no plans to restore Owens to anything resembling a conventional lake.[8]
On April 19, 2008, the Eastern Sierra Audubon Society, Audubon California, and the Owens Valley Committee held the first lake-wide survey of the bird populations of Owens Lake. Volunteers recorded a total of 112 avian species and 45,650 individual birds — the highest total number of birds ever officially recorded at Owens Lake. Volunteers identified 15 species of waterfowl (ducks and geese) and 22 species of shorebirds. The highest totals for individuals of a species included 13,873California gulls (an inland nester atMono Lake and elsewhere); 9,218American avocets; 1,767eared grebes; 13,826peeps or smallsandpipers such asdunlin, western andleast sandpipers; and 2,882 individual ducks.[21]
In 2004, theCalifornia Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) acquired a 218-acre (88 ha) parcel at the foot of Owens Lake. Designated the Cartago Wildlife Area in 2007, it is one of the few remaining spring and wetland areas on the shore of Owens Lake.[25] The site is open year-round for viewing numerous bird species attracted to the ponds and wetlands, as well as the ruins of a historicsoda ash plant from theWorld War I era and the 1920s.[21]
The town ofCartago, below the Sierra Nevada near present-dayOlancha, California, was the western shippingport for the Cerro Gordo Mines production and transported goods across Owens Lake with the northern ports ofSwansea andKeeler directly below the mines. From Cartago a barge-like vessel, theBessie Brady, was launched in 1872, which cut the three-day freight journey around the lake down to three hours.[26]
Much of the freight it carried was silver and leadbullion from the Cerro Gordo mines, which at their height were so productive that the bars of the refinedmetals waited in large stacks beforetwenty-mule team teamsters could haul it to Los Angeles. The trying three-week (one way) journey improved after the formation of the Cerro Gordo Freighting Company, run by ancestors of regional historianRemi Nadeau who has written of this period.
The town of Keeler, below theInyo Mountains on the former north shore, replaced Swansea as the shipping port for the mines after the1872 Lone Pine earthquake. In the 1870s it had a population of 5,000 as the center of trade for the Cerro Gordo mines.
The Cottonwood Charcoal Kilns, traditional stone masonry 'beehive' charcoalkilns, were built to transform wood from trees in Cottonwood Canyon above the lake intocharcoal, to feed the Cerro Gordo mines'silver andleadsmelters across the lake at Swansea. The ruins are located on the southern side of the lake bed near Cartago. They were similar to the nearbyPanamint Charcoal Kilns nearDeath Valley. The kilns are identified asCalifornia Historical Landmark #537.[27]
In 1879 silver mining ended, but Keeler was saved when theCarson and Colorado Railroad built narrow-gauge rail tracks to the town. It then became a soda,salt, andmarble shipping center until 1960. The rail line had been sold toSouthern Pacific Railroad in 1900. Keeler's current population is around 50 people and continues in decline.
In the 20th century, the Clark Chemical Company operated on the northwestern shore at Bartlett, withevaporation ponds for lake brine and a plant to extract its chemicals.
Mineral extraction plants around the lake include:[28]
Numerous Western films have been shot by Owens Lake, includingWestward Ho (1935),Maverick (1994),Riders of the Dawn (1937),Across the Plains (1939),Stage to Tucson (1951),From Hell to Texas (1958), andNevada Smith (1966).[30]
Other films that had scenes shot at Owens Lake or the nearby Alabama Hills where Owens Lake is visible includesTop Gun (1986) andTremors (1990).[31]
Notes
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