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At around 5 p.m. on Tuesday, during a ceremony hosted by City Councilmen David Ryu and Mitch O'Farrell, water will flow once again into the Ivanhoe reservoir. The adjacent Silver Lake reservoir will also be refilled within the coming weeks. Both reservoirs have been dry since 2015.
According to the Los Feliz Ledger, the heavy rains and snow of the winter mean the Sierra Nevada's snowpack (re: almost all of California's water) is at 240% capacity. As such, the Ivanhoe and Silver Lake reservoirs will come back online to help with the surplus.
Furthermore, the reservoirs should reach capacity within two weeks, much quicker than the 12 month process expected.
During a March meeting at Ivanhoe Elementary School councilmen Ryu and O'Farrell assured the community that a masterplan for the reservoirs will include the residents' input.
“It’s very important to me that the people who will be directly affected by this will have a huge say in what will happen,” O'Farrell said, notes the Ledger.
According to the LADWP, the department is preparing the Los Angeles Aqueduct, the Owens Valley lake, and other resources for the threat of flooding in the coming months from the snowpack's melt.
"The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) is working proactively to prepare for the arrival of anticipated massive runoff water resulting from this year’s near record snowpack in the Eastern Sierra Nevada Mountains," a press release by the department states. "...LADWP is also concerned by the potential of water overflow in and around the towns and communities of the Eastern Sierra and is actively providing assistance in preventing and controlling runoff that could impact the public."
