The Owens River is a river in southeastern California in the United States, approximately 183 miles (295 km) long. It drains into and through the Owens Valley, an arid basin between the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada and the western faces of the Inyo and White Mountains. The river terminates at Owens Lake, but its flow is greatly diminished by diversion into the Los Angeles Aqueduct since 1913. It is a major example and cause in the long-running California Water Wars, about urban region irrigation and drinking water export and local ecosystem and agricultural needs. In winter 2006, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power restored 5% of the pre-aqueduct flow to the river, by court order, allowing the Owens River Gorge, the river bed in the valley, and Owens Lake to contain a small amount of water.
Read more about Owens River: Course, Watershed, Geology, History, Ecology
Famous quotes containing the word river:
“Is not disease the rule of existence? There is not a lily pad floating on the river but has been riddled by insects. Almost every shrub and tree has its gall, oftentimes esteemed its chief ornament and hardly to be distinguished from the fruit. If misery loves company, misery has company enough. Now, at midsummer, find me a perfect leaf or fruit.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)