The Mono Lake Committee (MLC) is an environmental organization

Environmental organization

An environmental organization is an organization that seeks to protect, analyze or monitor the environment against misuse or degradation or lobby for these goals....

 based in Lee Vining, California

Lee Vining, California

Lee Vining is a census-designated place in Mono County, California, United States. It is located south-southeast of Bridgeport, at an elevation of 6781 feet . Lee Vining is located on the southwest shore of Mono Lake. The population was 222 as of the 2010 census, down from 250 reported as of 2000...

 in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. Its mission is to preserve Mono Lake

Mono Lake

Mono Lake is a large, shallow saline lake in Mono County, California, formed at least 760,000 years ago as a terminal lake in a basin that has no outlet to the ocean...

, by reducing diversions of water from the Eastern Sierra watersheds by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power

Los Angeles Department of Water and Power

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power is the largest municipal utility in the United States, serving over four million residents. It was founded in 1902 to supply water and electricity to residents and businesses in Los Angeles and surrounding communities...

 (LADWP).

The Committee was founded in 1978 by David Gaines, David Winkler, and Sally Judy. Gaines had previously (in 1975) gotten a grant from the NSF

National Science Foundation

The National Science Foundation is a United States government agency that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National Institutes of Health...

 to study the ecology of Mono Lake. He had found that, starting in 1941, LADWP's diversions of water from Mono Lake's inflow creeks had caused it to lose half its volume and double its salinity.