The Mono Lake is pictured 12 September 2007 in Lee Vining, California. In order to provide water for growing Los Angeles, water was diverted from the Owens River and then from the tributaries that fed Mono Lake. In 1941 the city of Los Angeles extended an aqueduct system into the Mono Basin, diverting water that would otherwise have entered Mono Lake. The water surface area was 54,924 acres (222 km²) in 1941. Water diversion soon rapidly reduced the surface area to 37,688 acres (153 km²) by 1982, resulting in a loss of nearly 27 square miles (70 km²) of lake area. Mono Lake was spared the same fate 28 September 1994, when the California State Water Resources Control Board issued an order to protect Mono Lake and its tributary streams. Since that time the lake level has steadily risen.
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