Mayor’s Visit to Owens Valley

Re “Protest Greets Riordan in Owens Valley,” Aug. 21: How nice that Mayor Richard Riordan made a trip out to the Owens Valley to meet with residents concerning L.A.’s so-called “water rights.”

It seems a shame that the real sin in this century-long debate has been completely ignored, and that is the fact that one of our country’s most exquisite scenic stretches of natural beauty has been completely decimated in the interest of building one of the ugliest cities in America.

Our family has owned a cabin in the High Sierra for more than 35 years and every time I pass through that area along Highway 395 on the way to our place, it sickens me to think of people so greedy, so power hungry and so shortsighted that they would even think of tampering with such natural beauty. As the Owens Valley has slowly become a desert and Mono Lake has continued to shrink, all I can do as a resident of L.A. County is to conserve as much water as I can and pray that a miracle will happen and L.A. will be forced to get its water elsewhere.

I dream of the day when the Owens Valley returns to its former glory, of lush grasslands and shimmering blue lakes mirroring the High Sierra mountain range.

P.S. I am the former publicist for the Mono Lake Committee.

KATHLEEN ROGERS-VENEMA, La Canada