The Silver Lake Reservoir is about to end its career as a reservoir and begin its new, full-time career as a chill place to hang or whatever. Sometime later this month or in early July, it'll be totally, temporarily drained and phased out as a water source as the city transitions from open-air to underground storage for drinking water (per federal guidelines). An LA Department of Water and Power rep tells the LA Times the great drain will take "several weeks."
A new, underground drinking-water reservoir is being built near Griffith Park to replace Silver Lake and its little northern neighbor Ivanhoe. To get the water there, a new pipeline will be built under the reservoir, while the lake is empty. (The roughly 400 million gallons of water drained out of the reservoir will be treated by "portable units" and returned to the drinking water supply for LA.) Construction won't shutter the path around the reservoir, so no jogging or speed-walking routines will be disrupted.
The reservoir is expected to be empty for about a year, at which point we'll finally see if a dry reservoir will spell disaster for housing sales in the area or not (we're guessing ... not). When the pipeline construction is finished, the reservoir will be refilled with non-potable water, and then discussion can begin about what to do with the space. (Super-hip beach? Pedestrian esplanade?) The LADWP will still be in charge of the site, because it will still have dams that they maintain. The Ivanhoe Reservoir will probably be "permanently removed from the city's drinking-water distribution system" later this year, the rep says.
· L.A. water department will drain Silver Lake Reservoir this summer [LAT]
· Silver Lake Reservoir Replacement Breaks Ground By Griffith [Curbed LA]
· Silver Lake Reservoir Will Be Emptied Out For a Year [Curbed LA]
· A Plan To Turn The Silver Lake/Ivanhoe Dam Into An Esplanade [Curbed LA]
· Bonkers: There's A Plan To Turn The Silver Lake Reservoir Into A Hipster Beach [Curbed LA]
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