Owens Lake

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Wikipedia

Owens Lake
Patsiata (Mono)
View of partially-filled Owens Lake (top-right) from Whitney Portal
Owens Lake is located in California
Owens Lake
Owens Lake
LocationSierra Nevada
Inyo County, California,
United States
Coordinates36°26′00″N 117°57′03″W / 36.4332°N 117.9509°W / 36.4332; -117.9509
TypeFlat
Primary inflowsOwens River
Natural springs and wells
Basin countriesUnited States
Max. length17.5 mi (28.2 km)
Max. width10 mi (16 km)
Max. depth3 ft (0.91 m)
Surface elevation3,556 ft (1,084 m)[1]
ReferencesGNIS feature ID 272820[1]
Image of the Owens Valley from the International Space Station – oriented top = true west

Owens Lake is a dry lake in the Owens Valley on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada in Inyo County, California. It is about 5 miles (8.0 km) south of Lone Pine. Unlike most dry lakes in the Basin and Range Province that have been dry for thousands of years, Owens held significant water until 1913, when much of the Owens River was diverted into the Los Angeles Aqueduct, causing the lake to desiccate 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]

History

Map showing the system of once-interconnected Pleistocene lakes in eastern California (USGS)

Early history

During the late Pleistocene, Owens Lake reached a depth of 200 feet (61 m) and formed part of an interconnected series of seven lakes, hundreds of miles long.[4]: 51  From north to south, these Pleistocene lakes were Lake Russell (present-day Mono Lake), Adobe Lake, Owens Lake, Lake Manly, Lake Panamint, China Lake, and Searles Lake. The increased inflow from the Owens River, from melting glaciers of the Tioga glaciation of the Sierra Nevada, caused Owens Lake to overflow south through Rose Valley into another now-dry lake bed named China Lake in the Indian Wells Valley, near Ridgecrest and a town that sports its name.[4]

19th century

Owens Lake was given its present name by the explorer John C. Frémont, in honor of one of his guides, Richard Owens.[5] The lake is called Patsiata by the Mono people.[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 mi2),[2] and sometimes overflowed to the south, after which the water would flow into the Mojave Desert.

20th century

By 1905, the lake's water was "excessively saline".[7] Starting in 1913, the river and streams that fed Owens Lake were diverted by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) into the Los Angeles Aqueduct, and the water level in the lake quickly dropped.[8] As the lake dried, soda processing at nearby Keeler, 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 the aqueduct into the lake bed, flooding the soda plant. Because of this, the courts ordered the city to pay $154,000 in restitution. In 1941, LADWP built the Long Valley Dam, which created Crowley Lake for flood management.[8]

21st century

A 2004 court order required LADWP to reestablish some flow from the river into the lake.[9][10] In winter 2006, LADWP restored 5% of the pre-aqueduct flow to the river by court order, allowing the Owens 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]

Numerous storms struck California during the first three months of 2023, causing a major breach of the aqueduct in March, which in turn increased the volume of the lake from 5,000 acre-feet to about 50,000 acre-feet.[13] Tropical Storm Hilary inflicted further damage in August, submerging dust control systems throughout the lake bed.[13]

As of 2024, environmental groups are working with leaders of the indigenous community in hopes of keeping more water in the lake.[14]

Mineralogy

Owens Lake from the Horseshoe Meadows Road

The lake is a large salt flat whose surface is made of a mixture of clay, sand, and a variety of minerals including halite, burkeite, mirabilite, thénardite, and trona. In wet years, a small brine pond forms within the dry lake. On especially hot summer days when ground temperatures exceed 150° F (66 °C), water is driven out of the hydrates on the lake bed creating a muddy brine. Periodic winds stir up noxious alkali dust 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][15] The dust contains toxic metals and metalloids such as cadmium, nickel, and arsenic.[16]

Management

Alkali dust storm at Owens Lake

The LADWP and the California State Lands Commission own most of the Owens Lake bed; only a few small parcels along the historic western shoreline are privately owned.[17]

In 2004, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) acquired a 218-acre (88 ha) parcel in Cartago, at the southern end 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.[18] The site is open year-round for birdwatching and wildlife observation. The ruins of the late 19th century Cottonwood Creek charcoal kilns, and a historic soda ash plant operated by PPG Industries from 1928 until 1958[19] are located on US Route 395, just north of the Cartago Wildlife Area.[20]

As part of an air pollution mitigation settlement, LADWP is shallow flooding 27 square miles (69.9 km2) of the salt pan in an effort to minimize alkali dust storms and the associated 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 of saltgrass, which is a native perennial grass highly tolerant of the salt and borate levels in the lake sediments.[20] Gravel covers are also used.[21]

Ecology

This astronaut photograph shows the mostly dry bed of Owens Lake

Owens Lake has long been an important place for birds to rest, feed, and breed. During a visit to Owens Lake in 1917, Joseph Grinnell from the Museum 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".[22]

Despite its near total obliteration, Owens Lake remains recognized as an Important Bird Area by the National Audubon Society.[17] At the shore, a chain of wetlands, fed by springs and artesian wells, keep part of the former Owens Lake ecosystem alive.

Snowy plovers nest at Owens along with several thousand snow geese and ducks. As a result of dust mitigation efforts, shallow flooding of the lake bed has created habitats approximately 3 feet (0.9 m) deep.[23] This water, although seasonally applied, is helping to buoy the lake's ecosystem. There are no current plans to restore Owens Lake to the condition it was in prior to the construction of the Los Angeles Aqueduct.[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 13,873 California gulls (an inland nester at Mono Lake and elsewhere); 9,218 American avocets; 1,767 eared grebes; 13,826 peeps (stints and sandpipers); and 2,882 ducks.[20]

At times, when the salt concentration in the water increases to concentrations near where salt crystals begin to form, bright pink halophilic (salt-loving) archaea spread across the lake bed.[24]

Industry

Cerro Gordo Mines

The remains of the Cottonwood charcoal kilns

In the late 19th century, the town of Cartago was located on the southwest shore of Owens Lake. Cartago was the shipping port for the ore produced by the Cerro Gordo Mines. A steam-powered barge, the Bessie Brady, was launched in 1872, which cut the three-day freight journey around the lake down to three hours.[25]

At first, the barge transported charcoal from Cartago to the smelters at the northeastern port of Swansea. On the return trip, it carried silver and lead ingots from the smelters across Owens Lake to Cartago. From there, the ingots were loaded onto twenty-mule team wagons and transported to Los Angeles. The docks at Swansea were no longer functional after the 1872 Owens Valley earthquake, so the town of Keeler replaced Swansea as the smelting location and center of trade for the Cerro Gordo mines. Keeler had a population of 5,000 in the late 1870s.

The Cottonwood charcoal kilns were built to transform wood from trees in Cottonwood Canyon above the lake into charcoal to feed the smelters across the lake at Swansea. The ruins of these kilns are located on the western side of the lake bed, just north of Cartago. Identified as California Historical Landmark #537, they were similar to the nearby Wildrose charcoal kilns in Death Valley.[26]

The trying three-week (one way) journey improved after the formation of the Cerro Gordo Freighting Company, run by ancestors of regional historian Remi Nadeau who has written of this period.

Other enterprises

Silver mining ended at Cerro Gordo in 1879, but Keeler was saved when the Carson and Colorado Railway built a narrow-gauge railway track to the town. The rail line was sold to Southern Pacific Railroad in 1900. Keeler was a soda, salt, and marble shipping center until 1960.

In the 20th century, the Clark Chemical Company operated on the northwestern shore at Bartlett, with evaporation ponds for lake brine and a plant to extract its chemicals.

Mineral extraction plants around the lake include:[27]

Owens Lake and the nearby Alabama Hills has long been a popular place for location shooting of Hollywood films. Some examples include Westward Ho (1935), Riders of the Dawn (1937), Across the Plains (1939), Stage to Tucson (1951), From Hell to Texas (1958), Nevada Smith (1966), Maverick (1994),[29] Top Gun (1986) and Tremors (1990).[30]

See also

References

Notes

  1. 1 2 U.S. Geological Survey (January 19, 1981). "Feature Detail Report: Owens Lake". Geographic Names Information System (GNIS). U.S. Department of the Interior. Archived from the original on September 4, 2024. Retrieved March 26, 2009.
  2. 1 2 3 Reheis, Marith C. (c. 1997). Owens (Dry) Lake, California: A Human-Induced Dust Problem. Impacts of Climate Change and Land Use in the Southwestern United States (Report). U.S. Geological Survey. Archived from the original on July 18, 1997. Retrieved June 3, 2010.
  3. ↑ Siegler, Kirk (March 11, 2013). "Owens Valley Salty as Los Angeles Water Battle Flows into Court". NPR. Archived from the original on September 4, 2024. Retrieved April 3, 2018.
  4. 1 2 Giambastiani, Mark A.; Bullard, Thomas F. (2010). "Terminal Pleistocene — Early Holocene Occupations On the Eastern Shoreline of China Lake, California" (PDF). Pacific Coast Archaeological Society Quarterly. 43 (1 and 2): 51. ISSN 0552-7252. Archived (PDF) from the original on September 4, 2024. Retrieved April 19, 2021.
  5. ↑ M. Morgan Estergreen (1962). Kit Carson: A Portrait in Courage. University of Oklahoma Press. pp. 126–144. ISBN 978-0758117656. {{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
  6. ↑ "State Commission Offers Overwhelming Support to Acknowledge Indigenous History at Owens Lake". Sierra Wave. May 5, 2022. Archived from the original on May 31, 2023. Retrieved May 31, 2023.
  7. ↑ Gilman, D. C.; Peck, H. T.; Colby, F. M., eds. (1905). "Owens Lake" . New International Encyclopedia (1st ed.). New York: Dodd, Mead.
  8. 1 2 3 4 "Bledsoe Collection 1908–1933, Los Angeles Department of Water and Power". Scenic Views – Owens Valley. Archived from the original on September 4, 2024. Retrieved July 28, 2015.
  9. 1 2 Kahn, Carrie (December 6, 2006). "L.A. Returns Water to the Owens Valley". NPR. Archived from the original on February 25, 2018. Retrieved March 12, 2022.
  10. ↑ "Owens Valley Water History (Chronology)". Inyo County Water Department. January 2008. Archived from the original on September 4, 2024. Retrieved March 12, 2022.
  11. ↑ Shapiro, Emily (June 24, 2020). "5.8 magnitude earthquake shakes California". ABC News. Archived from the original on August 18, 2021. Retrieved August 18, 2021.
  12. ↑ "Sacramento Court Issues Order Against Los Angeles Department of Water and Power In Pollution Dispute" (PDF). e Great Basin Unified Air Pollution Control District. Archived (PDF) from the original on October 4, 2022. Retrieved October 4, 2022.
  13. 1 2 Louis Sahagún (February 18, 2024). "Cost of Owens Valley storm damage continues to mount for Los Angeles Department of Water and Power". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on February 26, 2024. Retrieved September 29, 2025. The brine pool, which normally contains 5,000 acre-feet of water, has grown to about 50,000 acre-feet due to emergency releases of water created by a series of unusually powerful storms that began early last year. This extra water has submerged and damaged extensive dust control measures.
  14. ↑ Cowan, Jill; Chen, Mike Kai (June 16, 2024). "In California, Tribal Members Are Reclaiming the 'Land of the Flowing Water'". The New York Times.
  15. ↑ Knudson, Tom (January 5, 2014). "Outrage in Owens Valley a century after L.A. began taking its water". Sacramento Bee. Archived from the original on October 22, 2014. Retrieved October 21, 2014.
  16. ↑ Owens Lake Valley PM10 Planning Area Screening Ecological Risk Assessment of Proposed Dust Control Measures (PDF). 2007. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 4, 2016. Retrieved July 28, 2015.
  17. 1 2 "National Audubon Society -> Important Bird Areas -> Site Profile". netapp.audubon.org. September 12, 2016. Archived from the original on July 25, 2015. Retrieved July 24, 2015.
  18. ↑ "Cartago Wildlife Area". California Department of Fish and Wildlife. Archived from the original on September 4, 2024. Retrieved June 19, 2024.
  19. ↑ "PPG Industries Bartlett Plant" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on January 22, 2016.
  20. 1 2 3 Prather, Michael (Winter 2008). "Owens Lake is coming back to wildlife" (PDF). Rainshadow Newsletter. Vol. 4, no. 2. Owens Valley Committee. p. 5. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 4, 2016. Retrieved February 1, 2009.
  21. ↑ "History - Owens Valley, California Air Actions". Pacific Southwest | US EPA. Archived from the original on June 18, 2015. Retrieved July 28, 2015.
  22. ↑ "The evangelist of Owens Lake birds". Audubon California. July 9, 2015. Archived from the original on April 19, 2021. Retrieved April 19, 2021.
  23. ↑ Sahagun, Louis (November 14, 2014). "New dust-busting method ends L.A.'s longtime feud with Owens Valley". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on November 18, 2014. Retrieved November 16, 2014.
  24. ↑ Kenneth Noll (2021). "Halophiles - Microbes worth their salt" (PDF). Department of Molecular and Cell Biology. Storrs, Connecticut: University of Connecticut. Retrieved September 29, 2025.
  25. ↑ Parsons, Dana (March 24, 1988). "Digging Up a Mythtery : Under the Floor of Owens Lake, a Fabled Silver Cache Awaits Discovery, So They Say". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on November 11, 2020. Retrieved August 15, 2024.
  26. ↑ "California Historical Landmarks - Inyo County". California State Parks Department. State of California. Retrieved April 19, 2011.
  27. ↑ "Minerals and Mining". Carson & Colorado Railway. Archived from the original on July 14, 2015.
  28. ↑ "U.S. Borax Inc. Owens Lake Operations". Owens Lake Bed Master Project. Archived from the original on October 18, 2015.
  29. ↑ Schneider, Jerry L (2016). Western Filming Locations California Book 6. CP Entertainment Books. ISBN 9780692722947..
  30. ↑ "lonepinefilmhistorymuseum.org". www.lonepinefilmhistorymuseum.org. Archived from the original on August 11, 2018. Retrieved April 10, 2024.

Bibliography