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LADWP Doesn't Know Where To Get Water To Refill Silver Lake Reservoir
The Reservoir in 2009 (Photo by Michael Locke via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr)
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The Silver Lake Reservoir has been empty since last year, as part of a plan dating from 2006 to switch to covered or underground water storage facilities to comply with a federal mandate. Unfortunately, the LADWP claims the now decade-old plan did not account for our historic drought, so no one really has any clue as to when, how, or if the reservoir will be refilled, as EastsiderLA reports.
Some local politicians are trying to figure out a responsible way to come up with 400 gallons of water, including the inevitably of using non-drinking water. But that still begs the question: where will this water come from? No one knows.
Others, like Silver Lake Forward (which claims Moby as one of its members), have imagined not fully refilling the two reservoirs and, instead, converting them into a park and expanding sections of trees and other wildlife, in the style of those reclaimed freeway overpass parks. It's not like you can swim or paddle boat in it. It's purely aesthetic. But Silver Lake Swim, another group with an interest in the site's future, has proposed turning the reservoir into a body of water you can swim in with a man made beach.
Either way, the construction will end in early 2017, and until then, it's up to the politicos and vocal Silver Lakeans to bandy about ideas and get in arguments at neighborhood council meetings and sites like this.
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If all else fails, maybe Silver Lake could just borrow some water from Amy Poehler.
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