County of Inyo v. City of Los Angeles

More than 11 years ago the judgment of this court became final directing the issuance of a peremptory writ commanding the City of Los Angeles: “to prepare, certify and file in accordance with law an [environmental impact report addressing expanded groundwater extraction from Owens Valley], and further directing [the] City, pending such preparation, certification and filing to limit forthwith its underground-water extraction in the affected area to [an interim pumping level].” (County of Inyo v. Yorty (1973) 32 Cal.App.3d 795, 816 [ 108 Cal.Rptr. 377 ].) Much water has run under the bridge—or more precisely into the city’s aqueduct (as permitted by our interim pumping orders)—since that time. Four subsequent published opinions of this court chronicle the interminability of the litigation, despite final judgment. (See County of Inyo v. City of Los Angeles (1976) 61 Cal.App.3d 91 [ 132 Cal.Rptr. 167 ]; County of Inyo v. City of Los Angeles (1977) 71 Cal.App.3d 185 [ 139 Cal.Rptr. 396 ]; County of Inyo v. City of Los Angeles (1978) 78 Cal.App.3d 82 [ 144 Cal.Rptr. 71 ]; County of Inyo v. County of Los Angeles (1981) 124 Cal.App.3d 1 [ 177 Cal.Rptr. 479 ].)

Now Los Angeles…