Originally Posted by
TheAsianGuy
There are private operators on the lake, but the MWD owns the lake, maintain it, and controls all the operations on the lake, including regulations that cross between federal, state, and local jurisdictions. MWD makes so much money that it boggles your mind. I have plenty of insiders' scoops. As for the "private operators' fees", it's used to provide necessities for anglers' activities. Rick G has a good insight in the situation. MWD covers its operation cost with the water storage. Any additional activity costs will be sustained by the "stakeholders". This include the MWD, County of Riverside, NRDC, CA WCB, very little from DFG, and US EPA general fund for state's water and environmental sustainability. By the way, the cost for the boat ramp repair and maintenance is contributed from 1/2 of the fees collected. Any repair and modification to the boat ramp is pretty substantial due to the cost associating to the permitting since it's next to the water of the US. Since there are a lot of bad apples of the anglers out there screwing up for the stakeholders, it's inevitable that the costs go up somewhere. Since boats are the primary occupying bodies in the lake, the fees go directly toward boat owners. If there were a larger opportunity for both shoreliners and boater to take advantage of the lake, the fees wouldn't have been noticed as an impact otherwise. Just my shiny penny tossed into the mix.