[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 53 (Thursday, April 15, 2010)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E569-E570]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   IN MEMORY OF KEITH BRIGHT, WHO HELPED RECLAIM THE OWENS VALLEY OF 
                               CALIFORNIA

                                  _____
                                 

                            HON. JERRY LEWIS

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, April 15, 2010

  Mr. LEWIS of California. Madam Speaker, I rise today in memory of my 
very good friend Keith Bright, whose leadership, generosity, foresight 
and persistence helped remake and restore the Owens Valley in 
California over the past five decades. Mr. Bright passed away April 7, 
2010 at the age of 95, and his ever-present smile will be missed 
greatly by his many friends.

[[Page E570]]

  Keith Bright was born in Lemoore, California, during the oil boom in 
the State's San Joaquin Valley. He began working in the oil fields at 
19, but went to college to become an expert on the science and business 
of petroleum. During World War II, the military refused Keith's 
patriotic efforts to enlist because he was more valuable producing the 
vital supply of oil to the troops.
  During his years in the oil fields, Keith Bright founded KEN 
Corporation, one of the world's largest producers of oil-based drilling 
fluid, and NECK Petroleum, an oil drilling company based in 
Bakersfield, California. He developed oil and gas fields in the valley.
  In the 1960s, Keith Bright moved to the eastern Sierra Nevada and 
bought a ranch near Independence, California, in the heart of the Owens 
Valley. A long alpine valley ringed by some of the highest mountains in 
America, by the 1960s it had become parched because most of the water 
in the Owens River was diverted through the Los Angeles Aqueduct to the 
taps of Southern California.
  I came to know Keith Bright in the 1980s after redistricting added 
the Owens Valley to the area I represented. He was an intense advocate 
for Inyo County and the needs of the valley, both before and after he 
became a county supervisor.
  By the time Keith Bright joined the board of supervisors in 1986, 
Inyo County had been embroiled for more than a decade in a lawsuit to 
reclaim some of the water being pumped out of the valley by the city of 
Los Angeles. Although ordered by courts to reduce pumping a number of 
times, Los Angeles continued to literally pump the Owens Valley dry 
throughout the 1980s.
  To break the impasse, Bright in 1991 led the board in negotiating the 
landmark Inyo-Los Angeles Long-Term Water Agreement, which for the 
first time required Los Angeles to address the environmental effects of 
its pumping on the Owens Valley. The agreement sparked a recall 
movement against the Inyo County board--Bright defeated the recall by a 
60 percent margin.
  I was pleased to work with Keith Bright on a number of projects to 
bring back the Owens River, and it was a delight to see him on hand in 
2006 when the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power opened the 
valves and sent water pouring down the river once again. There is still 
work to be done, but anglers now catch trout along stretches of the 
river that were dry for decades.
  Keith Bright was a moving force behind many other improvements in the 
Owens Valley. He was one of the main backers of creating a National 
Historic Site at Manzanar, the internment camp where many Japanese 
Americans were forced to stay during World War II.
  Madam Speaker, Keith Bright was one of the most dedicated, 
enthusiastic Americans I have ever met. He was truly a modern man of 
the Old West, dedicated to rugged individualism and local initiative. 
He almost shouted from the mountaintop to let his local community work 
and keep big government off their backs.
  In memory of the long life and wonderful character of Keith Bright, 
the people of Inyo County have planned a memorial service designed to 
be a celebration. I ask my colleagues to join me in commending that 
celebration, and in remembering the life of the man who devoted himself 
to his community for nearly 50 years.

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