How Owens Lake became a disaster and why it could — but need not — happen to the Great Salt Lake Owens Lake shows just how bad things could get for Utah.

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power began siphoning the waters of the 110-square-mile Owens Lake in 1913. Within 13 short years, the California lake went dry.

Heavy rain and flooding over the last year have caused roughly $100 million in damage to Los Angeles water and dust control systems in the Owens Valley.

This land is your land — until a foreign mining company wants it,” writes the owner and caretaker of a historic 19th-century mining town in Inyo.

Dust rising from the dry bottom of Owens Lake is a longstanding problem. Now, scientists have found that lands surrounding the lake are a bigger source of dust pollution.

The area around Owens Lake holds a certain kind of magnetism. But longtime residents recall spells when things weren't always pleasant.

This Great Salt Lake Collaborative story is part of our series “At water’s edge: Searching for solutions at the Great Salt Lake’s sister lakes across the Great Basin.” The in-depth project ...

But unlike Owens Lake, which dried up in 1926 due to diversion of its tributaries, the Great Salt Lake remains half full and still has a fighting chance. 2.

But unlike Owens Lake, which dried up in 1926 due to diversion of its tributaries, the Great Salt Lake remains half-full and still has a fighting chance. 2.

For over a century, SoCal has taken water from Owens Lake. After record runoff from winter storms, many fear it could cause catastrophic damage to the aqueduct and surrounding areas.

Owens Lake, for instance, has been almost completely dry for nearly a century, since its water was diverted to Los Angeles.

Owens Lake was naturally full of water until the Los Angeles Aqueduct was constructed in 1913, which took so much water from the Owens River that the lake began to dry out.