HELLO.
I’M A MUSICIAN ABOUT TO MOVE TO A HOUSE IN FRONT OF THE SILVER LAKE RESERVOIR AND HAVE A COUPLE OF QUESTIONS. I READ THAT THE WATER RESERVOIR WILL BE REPLACED BY AN UNDERGROUND FACILITY IN 2015. WHAT WILL BECOME OF THE ‘LAKE’? AND IS IT PERMITTED TO KAYAK AT IT?
THANKS!
AV

Alfredo, welcome to the neighborhood! Yes, in 2015, the drinking water for downtown and South LA, which has historically come from Silver Lake (and now comes only from Ivanhoe, the small reservoir adjacent to Silver Lake on the north—the one with the “bird balls”), will be supplied by two large underground “lakes” located adjacent to the LA River just northeast of Travel Town in Griffith Park. That is why you are seeing all the pipeline construction around the community, as the DWP constructs bypass tunnels to bring the water from what is called the Spreading Grounds, past us here in Silver Lake, to downtown and South LA. This was done to comply with federal regulations that say it is no longer healthy to supply drinking water from open reservoirs exposed to all the pollution in the air.

Our Lake will remain in one form or another that will be very similar to what you see today. Currently, the Silver Lake Reservoirs Conservancy is working with the DWP and the Los Angeles City Council and Public Works folks to plan for life after the Reservoir goes offline. It was built one hundred years ago, and William Mulholland understood that it is a part of the public trust. It will need a future that sustains and respects that vision and the community that has long treasured our unique heritage. Our hope and expectation is that Silver Lake will play an integral role in future watershed management in Los Angeles—local, state and federal mandates say that we must find better ways to manage stormwater runoff and get more of our drinking water locally (either by recycling and cleaning stormwater or from the ground), rather than from aqueducts from far away. There needs to be further study to determine what role Silver Lake can play in that water future. I’d be more specific, but until extensive studies are done, it’s hard to say what that might be.

In addition to a regional role in watershed management, the Reservoir can have a future as a key local recreational resource. Part of any study of the future use of the property will entail looking at recreational facilities and urban wildlife habitat (our coyotes are neighbors, too). We are hopeful that more of the Reservoir property will be open to public use in the future, and since nothing is off the table at this point, yes, kayaking may well be in that future. But for today and the near term, sorry, no access to the water and no kayaking.