A federal court judge on Thursday dismissed a lawsuit filed by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power against a state regulatory agency it claimed was forcing the city to waste billions of gallons of precious High Sierra water to control dust on dry Owens Lake.
In his 21-page ruling, U.S. District Court Judge Anthony W. Ishii determined that “there is no reason or logic” to key arguments in the DWP lawsuit, which was publicly supported by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, the Los Angeles City Council and the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce.
The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Fresno accused the Great Basin Unified Air Pollution Control District of issuing unreasonable and unlawful orders. It was prompted by Great Basin’s 2011 order that the city control dust on an additional 2.9 square miles of lake bed, a job that could cost ratepayers another $400 million.