LOS ANGELES (AP) — State regulators say the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power must expand air pollution controls to mitigate dust from the dried Owens Lake bed.
The California Air Resources Board decision is a blow to LA's powerful utility in a century-long battle over the lake 200 miles north where the city siphoned water until it went dry in 1926.
Since 1998, LA has spent $1.2 billion to stem dust pollution in Owens Valley, mainly by putting water back into a 40-square-mile area of the lakebed. The state on Monday upheld an order from local regulators that expands that area by nearly three square miles.
Messages left with LADWP officials were not immediately returned, but the utility has called the order excessive and wasteful and is suing to stop it.
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