Mono Lake: A Story of Science and Citizen Action - changing the fate of a California saline lake

A talk by Geoffrey McQuilkin, Executive Director of the Mono Lake Committee and Williams parent.

Oct 17 at 8:15 pm in Griffin 3.

Mono Lake is a unique alkaline salt lake ecosystem in the rain shadow of the Sierra Nevada, east of Yosemite National Park in California. It supports migratory and nesting birds, including seagulls and ospreys, as well as brine shrimp and alkali flies. It has remarkable geochemistry, with unusual tufa towers that are formed by mineral-rich springs bubbling up under the lake, which is located in a region of recent volcanic activity. In 1941, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power began diverting fresh water from Sierra runoff to Los Angeles instead of into the lake, causing a rapid drop in volume and increase in salinity. Saving the Mono Lake is a success story of citizen action that involved a 30-year legal battle over scarce water resources. The resulting legal success slowed evaporation of the lake, but making the entire protection plan a reality is still a daunting challenge.