Los Angeles takes the state to court over swirling dry lake dust clouds

A long-term battle in the eastern Sierra about controlling swirling dust clouds at the Owens Dry Lake has escalated. The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power is taking the state of California, among others, to court.

When Los Angeles drained a lake to water its growing city more than a century ago, a bed of dust was left behind.

Decades later, state law made the city and the DWP responsible for controlling the dust, a gigantic swirl that at one time was considered the largest single source of particulate pollution in the country.

The city of Los Angeles has spent about $1 billion on almost 50 square miles of dust controls so far. Meanwhile, the Great Basin Regional Air Pollution District has ordered L.A. to spend $200 million more on another patch of the lake — an expense that has caused LADWP to immediately balk.

Great Basin Regional Air Pollution District is arguing that the DWP’s own studies justify added dust controls to keep the air cleaner.

In Superior Court, the city of L.A. has accused the district of moving the goalposts and requiring unreasonable work and expense. L.A.’s complaint blames the state Air Resources Board and the state Lands Commission for faulty procedure on appeals and not following the law.

DWP has long used sprinklers to control dust on the lake bed, spraying as much water annually as 180 average Angeleno homes use in a year.