Almost 90 years too late, Los Angeles is finally making partial amends for one of the most infamous acts of water theft in history: the diversion of the Owens River to supply water to the then-infant city. The diversion caused the 110-square-mile Owens Lake to dry up, leading to dramatic and sometimes deadly dust storms and some of the worst air quality in the nation. To comply with the federal Clean Air Act, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power undertook a $62 million effort to bring water back to the lake, returning enough water to supply more than 60,000 homes. Business interests objected to the plan and wanted to solve the dust problem by lining the lake bed with old tires or compressed trash.
