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. 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, and has been known since at least the 1990s as a pervasive source of fine alkaline dust containing harmful levels of particulates and chemicals.
History
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. 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.
19th century Owens Lake was given its present name by the explorer John C. Frémont, in honor of one of his guides, Richard Owens. The lake is called Patsiata by the Mono people. 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), 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". 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. 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. 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.
21st century A 2004 court order required LADWP to reestablish some flow from the river into the lake. 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. The lake was the epicenter of a magnitude 5.8 earthquake that occurred on June 24, 2020. 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. 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. Tropical Storm Hilary inflicted further damage in August, submerging dust control systems throughout the lake bed. As of 2024, environmental groups are working with leaders of the indigenous community in hopes of keeping more water in the lake.
Mineralogy
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. The dust contains toxic metals and metalloids such as cadmium, nickel, and arsenic.
Management
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. 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. 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 are located on US Route 395, just north of the Cartago Wildlife Area. 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. Gravel covers are also used.
Ecology
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