What Can the Dry Silver Lake Reservoir Teach Us About the Future Ecology of Los Angeles?

Potential Habitat Expansion. | Photo: Courtesy of Mia Lehrer and Associates.

A couple months ago a friend, and storyteller, who lives in an apartment overlooking the Silver Lake Reservoir gazed out his window and then quipped on social media: It's like the DMZ. As joggers ran circles around the lake, backhoes performed a mysterious choreography in the dry lake. The fence that separates pedestrians from what used to be drinking water never looked so ominous.

The empty basin triggers fears as some homeowners worry about how it might impact property values and other neighbors simply miss the view. And for everyone who enjoys walking or driving around the reservoir complex, one big question arises: When will it be refilled?

Although anxiety provoking, the open question is also a chance to rethink how we see Silver Lake as a resource for the city and as a model for other reservoir sites around the Los Angeles area. Located in a city short on parkland and on a site that could use additional amenities, it may not be enough to simply ask for water. What if the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (DWP) and city officials took a holistic approach that addresses public space as part of an overall system in the city?

In late 2015, the DWP drained the reservoirs in order to install a bypass pipeline - a 4,600-foot long, 66-inch diameter welded steel pipe - along the bottom of the basin and a new regulator station. The construction is necessary to comply with federal drinking water quality regulations. According to the DWP, open reservoirs in Los Angeles such as Silver Lake and Ivanhoe, are subject to environmental contamination for any number of causes: algae, surface run off, birds, insects, and animals. With the pipeline bypass, drinking water will now be stored in the covered and compliant Headworks Reservoir in Griffith Park.

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This past June, the DWP held a community meeting to update the public and address mounting concerns. Martin Adam, director of the department's water operations, sketched out a timeline for construction of the bypass installation and restoration plans for landscapes surrounding the complex. Still, this meeting wasn't conclusive on how and when the DWP would fulfill its promise of returning water to the two reservoirs - a promise, seemingly scuttled by the ongoing drought. The initial plan to use potable water was deemed untenable given current water shortages. It would be a folly to pump water from Northern California and the Colorado River only to have it become undrinkable once it flowed into the basin. An alternative might be to use captured storm water runoff or recycled water from the L.A. Glendale Wastewater Treatment Plant, but the few million dollars in plumbing doesnt yet exist.

When asked about the future of Silver Lake, Councilmember Mitch O'Farrell of the 13th District offered few clues. We are holding the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power to its commitment in restoring the reservoir with water. The Department will be able to share detailed information on the project at the upcoming meeting on September 20th, he said in an email.

For landscape architect Mia Lehrer, there's potential to create green infrastructure and to knit outmoded reservoirs back into L.A.'s urban ecology. The reservoir has the opportunity to be habitat, recreation, and water storage that can slow release into Elysian Park, into street trees, or even into the yards of some of the people who live in the neighborhood, she says.

Lehrer's history with the site dates back more than 15 years to when she created a master plan for the Silver Lake and Ivanhoe reservoirs, one that would eventually lead to the development of the jogging path and Silver Lake meadow. While the reservoirs cover 97 acres, the overall complex also includes 31 acres of adjacent open space. Any new plan for the park would need to address both wet and dry areas. Lehrer envisions removing the fence and replacing the asphalt around the edges with wetlands. Rather than assuming that the lake will be refilled to its full 45-foot depth, she proposes the possibility of a shallower lake at 20 or 30-feet deep.

Potential Board Walk. | Photo: Courtesy of Mia Lehrer and Associates.

Her vision addresses amenities like bathrooms since currently there are no public facilities, issues of connectivity and transportation such as bike lanes and trails, and habitat - this past year, bypass construction staging in the eucalyptus grove interrupted heron nesting season. Additionally, there's an opportunity to see the reservoir as connected to the nearby bike paths along the L.A. River in nearby Frogtown.

Silver Lake Forward is a non-profit organization advocating on behalf of a holistic and sustainable approach to the reservoirs. Members include a whos-who of Silver Lake creatives: Lehrer, architect Barbara Bestor, Moby, and Beats Electronics' Luke Woods. Co-founder and president Robert Soderstrom is a Silver Lake resident who stresses that only focusing on water and refilling the basin misses the bigger picture. Instead, Soderstrom sketches out a future that has three components: lake, land, and city. Twenty-five percent of the reservoir complex is land. What happens with that land and how do we make it beautiful and useful for the community? he asks. If we focus only on the water and filling up Silver Lake like a bathtub, we make a water tomb - a place where water goes to die, since it stagnates without oxygen. Instead, we should consider modifying the embankments to support plant life to bio-remediate the water and send it back into the city for other uses.

One of the biggest challenges facing any new vision, however, is political will. Both Lehrer and Soderstrom note that the future of the complex lies in leadership and stewardship. They are asking for more transparenc

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