Here It Is, Take It!

Dates

2021 - Ongoing
Author

BRAD TEMKIN

This project continues my longstanding attention to our relationship with nature—how we appreciate it and how we are preserving it. California has a long history of using politics and money to influence water policy, and the city of Los Angeles is a prime example. With two aqueducts, several reservoirs, and dams within the area between the Owens Valley and the city of Los Angeles, I envision this as an opportunity to focus on how Los Angeles is meeting the challenges of water rights and delivery while highlighting the environmental restoration that needs to occur with the land, fish, and vegetation during this process.

© BRAD TEMKIN - Image from the Here It Is, Take It! photography project

"Aqueducts 1 & 2 at The Cascades – Sylmar, CA 2021" Aqueducts 1 & 2 at the Cascades, which feed water going to San Fernando Valley

"Basketball Court – Saugus, CA 2021" The basketball court is located just west of Power Plant 2. Families who live in the Power Plant 1 and Power Plant 2 housing units used the basketball court west of Power Plant 2. The basketball court is located on a Department of Water & Power easement issued by the US Department of Interior. Note: Power Plant 2 penstocks seen on hillside are 6’-8” diameter to 7’-0” diameter riveted steel with thickness ranging from 3/8” thick at the top to 1-1/4” thick at the bottom.

"Los Angeles Aqueduct, Pine Tree Sag Pipe – Pine Tree Canyon, CA 2021" Los Angeles Aqueduct running through Mohave Desert. Riveted steel sag pipe, 9 feet diameter and 3841 feet long installed in Pine Tree Canyon 20 miles north of Mojave.

"Dust Mitigation – Owens Valley, CA 2021" This image shows the construction of a partition being installed to improve water distribution within a dust control area (DCA). By installing partitions, crews are able to create “checks” across the topography that allow for better ponding and a more efficient method of preventing dust emissions. The black squiggly lines are the bubbler whip lines that distribute water throughout the area. The dark areas represent ponded/wetted soils.

"Aqueduct Gates – Sylmar, CA 2021" Aqueduct Gates releasing water from Aqueduct to city of Los Angeles. On November 5, 1913, William opened the gates of the aqueduct to city of Los Angeles and exclaimed, "Here it is, take it!"

"In Flight – Owens Lake, CA 2021" Snow geese flying over Owens Lake.

"Sea Of Shade Balls – Sylmar, CA 2021"

"Trenches and Mounds – Owens Lake, CA 2021"

"Tunnel Outlet from Lee Vining Intake – Bishop, CA 2021" This is the east portal of the Mono Craters Tunnel. This tunnel is part of the Aqueduct extension completed in 1944 that allowed LADWP to convey water from the Mono Basin Watershed via gravity into the Upper Owens River.

"Bouquet Inlet-Outlet Pipe Line - San Francisquito Canyon, CA 2021" The Bouquet Inlet-Outlet Pipe Line is a welded steel pipeline 80 to 94 inches in diameter which extend 3.5 miles. It connects the Bouquet Reservoir to the Los Angeles Aqueduct just north of Power Plant 1. The Bouquet Reservoir serves as a water storage reservoir as well as power regulation for the City of Los Angeles.

"Dry Lake Bed – Owens Valley, CA 2021" On the Owens Lake playa, concentrated salts create capillary and evaporite crusts that are effective in preventing dust emissions. The white areas show the formation of an evaporite layer that seals off and protects the surface from erosive winds. The red areas are where evaporite crusts are forming but are colored by a bacterium that thrives in hyper saline conditions.

"No Name Sag Pipe Crossing Aqueduct 1 – Alabama Hills, CA 2021" Part of the First Los Angeles Aqueduct called “No Name Sag Pipe” – Diameter - 9’-3” Riveted Steel Pipe with ¼” thick at the top of the sag and 9/16” thick at the bottom of the sag; NOTE: Length – 2,016 feet; operating pressure at the bottom of the sag is 158 psi.

"Fairmont Reservoir Side Walls – Antelope Valley, CA 2021" Asphalt paved side walls of the new Fairmont Reservoir that was constructed in the early 1980s to replace the original reservoir. The new Fairmont reservoir has a capacity of almost 500 acre-feet and the reservoir serves as forebay to Power Plant 1.

"Elizabeth Lake Bed, Elizabeth Lake, CA 2021" Elizabeth Lake is a natural lake that lies directly on the San Andreas Fault in northwestern Los Angeles County. The lake has been dry since 2013 because of prolonged drought. The aqueduct is underneath bringing water from the northeast to the city of Los Angeles.

"Winding Stream – Lone Pine, CA 2021" This is on the Lower Owens River somewhere between Lone Pine and Owens Lake. This is part of the 62 mile section of the river that was dried up when water was diverted into the Los Angeles Aqueduct in 1913. The Lower Owens River Project (LORP), one of the largest river restoration projects in the Western United States, was completed in February 2007 to re-water the river.

"Flooding – Owens Lake, CA 2021"

"Dried Algae on Wall of Fairmont Reservoir - Antelope Valley, CA 2021"

"Barriers – Owens Lake, CA 2021" This area is one of the channel sprinkler areas. The black, squiggly lines are “whiplines” with sprinklers that are used to irrigate the vegetation growing in that area. The circular darker areas represent the wetted areas within the throw radius of the sprinklers.

"Walking The Aqueduct – Mohave, CA 2021" This is a person walking the Aqueduct in Mohave Desert. This section is part of the First Los Angeles Aqueduct in Mojave Division. It’s covered concrete box conduit – Approx. 11’-6” wide X 9’-0” deep. Maximum flow is 420 cfs. The top is at grade level, which is what person is walking on.

"Montgomery Pass Mustangs – Mono Basin, CA 2021" Montgomery Pass Mustangs running through the Mono Basin. These wild horses, previously seen rarely and only in remote parts of the Mono Basin, have experienced rapid population growth in the past five years—so much that they have expanded far beyond their home territory near the Nevada state line and now routinely reach South Tufa and the shoreline springs and wetlands at Mono Lake where they congregate to drink brackish water and graze on vegetation.

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