County of Inyo v. City of Los Angeles

In 1973, at the instance of Inyo County, this court issued a writ of mandate directing the City of Los Angeles and its department of water and power to prepare an environmental impact report (EIR) covering their extraction of subsurface water in the Owens Valley. (County of Inyo v. Yorty (1973) 32 Cal.App.3d 795, 814-816 [ 108 Cal.Rptr. 377 ].) In August 1976 the City of Los Angeles filed its return to the writ, submitting its final EIR, which had been approved and certified by its board of water and power commissioners on July 15, 1976. Inyo County, the petitioner, has objected to the return, charging that the final EIR fails to comply with the requisites of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). We sustain the county’s objection.

We shall not extend this opinion by narrating the history of Los Angeles’ acquisition of extensive lands and water rights in the Owens Valley and its establishment of a system for exporting water to the City of Los Angeles. Nor do we describe the prior events in this litigation. The unconversant reader should read County of Inyo v. Yorty, supra, 32 Cal.App.3d 795 , and County of Inyo v. City of Los Angeles (1976) 61 Cal.App.3d 91 […