"Keeping the Dust Down in California’s Owens Valley"

"Don’t call Ted Schade a hero — definitely not an environmental one. Even though he’s largely responsible for the cleanup of cancer-causing dust from Southern California’s Owens Lake, something he accomplished by waging a decades-long David vs. Goliath battle against the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power — Schade will tell you: He is not a hero.

The director of the Great Basin Unified Air Pollution Control District, a California agency, Schade views his legacy with an engineer’s practical logic. 'I had a lawbreaker. I’m a law enforcement officer,' he says, rummaging in a desk drawer for the badge he confesses he has seldom worn.

A lean, mild-mannered man with thinning gray hair, Schade, 57, seems more like Mr. Rogers’ sidekick than an environmental warrior. He is polite and genteel, the product of a Catholic education. But the strength that helped him successfully challenge one of the nation’s most powerful municipal departments sparkles in his eyes: steely blue, penetrating and amused. 'I like the fight,' he says."

Jane Braxton Little reports for High Country News March 2, 2015.