The little-known groundwater Los Angeles pumps in the Owens Valley, and the tribes who want it back

"While many Californians know the story of how L.A. seized the valley's river water in the early 1900s and drained Owens Lake, fewer know that the city also pulls up a significant amount of water from underground. The pumping has led to resentment among leaders of Native tribes, who say it is leaving their valley parched and harming the environment."

""We've seen so many impacts from groundwater pumping," said Teri Red Owl, an Indigenous leader. "There's a lot of areas that are dewatered, that are dried up." The valley spreads out at the base of the Sierra Nevada more than 200 miles north of Los Angeles. Once it had so many springs, streams and wetlands that the Paiute and Shoshone people called their homeland Payahuunadü, "the land of flowing water.""

Los Angeles operates 105 groundwater wells across Owens Valley, drawing water through electric pumps into canals and sending it south via expanded aqueduct infrastructure. The pumping supplements surface diversions that historically drained Owens Lake and redirected river flows. Tribal leaders report widespread dewatering of springs, streams and meadows, loss of native grasses, and ecosystem alteration. Tribal organizations seek restoration of lands and water lost first to settlers and later to city acquisitions. Tribal leaders describe the valley as treated like a water colony. The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power holds extensive land in Owens Valley.

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