Los Angeles

Reaching its Tentacles Even Further

The search for water continued. Soon, the Hoover Dam was built on the Colorado. With the federal government's help, Los Angles began taking water from the Colorado, a feat which it could only dream of before.

In 1964 the Metropolitan Water District began to recommend diverting the Columbia River in the northwest. There were plans to bring water down from the Yukon and dam San Francisco Bay. No one ever thought of conservation. The remains of the Los Angles River were cemented over and a dam was built in Central Los Angles. The dam eventually broke.

In the 1970s Los Angles began to divert the Feather River-600 miles away from the city. An additional aqueduct, according to Mulholland's plan, was built to supplement the existing one from the Owens Valley.

Mono Lake

Back in the 1930s, Los Angles began to move north from the Owens Valley. It found Mono Lake, another pristine remnant of an inland sea. The city began diverting the four streams that fed the lake-just like it did in the Owens Valley.

The level of the lake began to drop dramatically. Unlike in the Owens Valley, this time there were conservationists that fought back. David Gains, one of those conservationists, along with a group of college students began a study of the lake in the 1970s. They found that if the diversions continued, the million-year-old lake would completely disappear. The lake has a unique ecosystem because it is three times saltier than the ocean. It supports brine shrimp that live off algae. Thousands of migrating birds stop in at the lake, much like they did in the Owens Valley, and feast on the billions of brine shrimp. Public opinion began to change and in the 1980s the California Supreme Court limited the amount of water the city took from the streams flowing into the lake. Finally, the conservationists were victorious.

Conclusion

Today, Los Angles reaches over 200 miles to the Owens Valley, twice, hundreds of miles to the Colorado, and 600 miles to the Feather River. They are changing though. The city has finally begun to institute water conservation. But for now, the city is an octopus with a permanent hold on the Southwest.