LA Water & Power Environmental Restoration Project for Lower Owens River

摘要

William Mulholland's vision to provide water to Los Angeles in the early years of the 20th Century transformed the city into one of American's greatest metropolitan areas, yet the diversion of water by the Los Angeles Aqueduct impacted the environment of the Owens River Valley. Located over 250 miles northeast of Los Angeles, the Owens River Valley was the site of the construction of the famed "California Water Wars" of the 1920's. During that time the construction of the Los Angeles Aqueduct was called "the rape of the Owens Valley," and Owens Valley farmers and ranchers protested, sometimes violently, against the project that effectively turned lush grasslands into virtual desert.