In order to meet Los Angeles?EUR??,,????'??? growing need for water, Engineer William Mullholland designed the 233-mile conduit that would divert the Owens River water in 1913. The new and stable source of water for LA contributed significantly to the population boom from a desert town into the second-largest city in the United States.

Yet diverting the water from Owens Valley into the aqueduct radically transformed the Eastern Sierra region; where the lake once was has essentially become a toxic dust bowl. Residents have protested on behalf of declining agriculture, economy, and respiratory problems. Sediment from nearby industry which once sat the bottom of the lake has become airborne due to the region?EUR??,,????'???s dry and windy climate, exceeding EPA standards by over 20 times. Several times residents have ?EUR??,,????'??terrorized?EUR??,,????'?? the aquaduct: twice dynamiting it in 1924 and again in 1927, and attempted a takeover which resulted in blocking the flow of water for four days.

Since taking up the issue with the courts, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power agreed in 1997 to return water to the Owens River by 2003. Yet the restoration project has been pushed back several times. Don Mooney, one attorney for the Owens Valley Committee, stated that the county ?EUR??,,????'??violated no less than 13 court orders.?EUR??,,????'?? H. David Nahai, the Department of Water and Power Commission?EUR??,,????'???s president, responded that the delays are due to this being the largest (and very expensive) river restoration project in the country.

Though the water has finally been diverted back to the river, it will take months for the water to reach many places and years for plant and animal life to begin to return. There are differing opinions on how exactly the once-dry river will respond.