DWP AND DFG HAVE HAD TENSIONS.

Byline: Brett Pauly Daily News Staff Writer

The tug-of-war between the Department of Water and Power and the Department of Fish and Game over usage of the Owens River Gorge has had a storied past. It seems now as if the two agencies are on track for the permanent rewatering of the gorge and development of its rejuvenated fishery.

Here's a history:

The natural flows in the Owens Gorge were about 230 cubic feet per second (CFS) before construction of the Long Valley Dam was completed in 1941 to create what was to be called Long Valley Reservoir, northwest of Bishop.

The reservoir was renamed Crowley Lake in memory of Father John J. Crowley, the ``Desert Padre'' who held sermons from Mammoth Lakes to Death Valley and died in an auto crash in 1940.

Construction continued into the next decade on a series of tunnels and pipes used to divert Crowley waters to three hydroelectric power plants in the gorge.

The plants were built at descending increments of 800 feet elevation. Upper Gorge Power Plant stands nine miles below the dam, Middle Gorge Power Plant at 12 miles and Control Gorge Power Plant at 18 miles, on the north end of Pleasant Valley Reservoir.

The plants provide electricity for 75,000 homes in Southern California.

Seepage from the dam and natural springs creates 16 CFS between the dam and the upper power plant, an area where the endangered Owens tui chub resides. But the gorge below the highest plant was completely dewatered in 1953, leaving wild brown trout to 10 pounds and heavier to die on its drying banks.

Officials with the DFG agreed to allow the gorge to be dewatered in exchange for the construction of Hot Creek Fish Hatchery.

The gorge would remain dry until March 5, 1991, when a 20-foot-wide break in the penstock caused an 1,800-foot section of the pressurized steel pipe to collapse and flood the gorge between the two lower plants.

Citing a remote 19th century provision of the Fish and Game Code that requires sufficient water to pass below a dam to keep fish in good condition (which had been ignored 50 years earlier when the Long Valley Dam was built), the DFG had an action filed just a month later by the Mono County District Attorney seeking to have the DWP maintain the flows in the gorge.

The action never went to trial; the DWP opted to work in conjunction with the DFG to create a new fishery. The stipulated agreement is enforced by a judge.

A technical review committee for the Owens Gorge Rewatering Project made up of officials from Mono County, the DFG and the DWP was formed to make joint decisions on the project. An Interim Flow Agreement was approved by the Board of Water and Power Commissioners in June 1994.

After six months of labor and a cost of more than $2 million to modify the aqueduct and power plants to return water to the gorge - and after enough time was given to establish plants and natural food sources, European browns were planted July 1, 1994.

The CFS below Upper Gorge Power Plant was increased from the traditional 16 CFS of the post-dam era to 26 CFS on May 15 this year.

While several agencies will have a hand in implementing the project into the next millennium - when average flows are expected to reach 65 CFS and in summertime to plateau at 105 CFS, the final say on its progress will come down from the state Water Resources Control Board.

CAPTION(S):

2 Photos

Photo: (1--color) In Owens River Gorge, angler Gary Guns olley of Bishop casts a dry fly to waters where brown trout have made the narrow fishery their home. The high-desert gorge,which winds through the boundary of Mono and Inyo Counties,was planted with fish in 1994 after the gorge was rewatered following a dry spell that lasted nearly four decades.

Brett Pauly/Daily News

(2) DFG biologist Steve Parmenter released some of the first brown trout into the Owens River Gorge after its rewatering.

Ray Ramirez / Special to the Daily News