Looking to lessons learned from the Mono Basin water-sharing decision made 20 years ago is one way to move forward in the bid to ease the effects of drought, according to organizers of the Nov. 17 Mono Lake at 20: Past, Present and Future symposium in Sacramento.

This day-long event is being hosted by UC Berkeley’s Wheeler Institute for Water Law and Policy, which is being joined by stakeholders in the case such as the Mono Lake Committee, California Trout, and Water and Power Law Group. The Water Education Foundation is co-sponsoring the event featuring speakers including Lester Snow, executive director of the California Water Foundation, and Felicia Marcus, chair of the State Water Resources Control Board.

The symposium will highlight discussions about the landmark decision from the State Water Resources Control Board to amend the water rights of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power to protect public trust values and fisheries in 1994. Core to its lasting success are the same principles that lawmakers struggle with today as they work to share limited water supplies among urban and agricultural users, and fish and wildlife.

Four sessions will explore different facets of the decision:

Session 1 – Retrospective on Mono Lake Cases
Session 2 – Outlook for Mono Lake and its Creeks
Session 3 – Implications of Changes since 1994 in California’s Water Rights System
Session 4 – Applications at Greater Scale and Complexity

Questions that will be answered include: What are the actual results of the decision’s implementation? What does the decision mean for other water rights, as the State Water Board seeks to determine how best to protect public trust uses of the Delta and Central Valley rivers consistent with maintaining reliable water supplies?

Besides Snow and Marcus, speakers include Geoff  McQuilkin, executive director of the Mono Lake Committee; Tom  Birmingham, general manager of Westlands Water District and former counsel to Los Angeles Department of Water & Power; Marty  Adams, director of water operations of LADWP; Mark Drew, Eastern Sierra region manager of California Trout; Martha Davis, executive manager policy development of Inland Empire Utilities Agency; Matt Kondolf, geomorphologist and professor of environmental planning at UC Berkeley; and many others.

Click here for more information and to register.