Capacity Crowd Attends Saturday's Silver Lake Community Meeting

Two hot-button issues regarding the Silver Lake Reservoir Complex attracted overflow crowds Saturday afternoon to Micheltorena School's auditorium. Originally billed as a meeting to discuss with stakeholders the status of the "meadow" park plan on the east side of the LADWP reservoir complex, the meeting was expanded to include an hour-long update on water quality of both Silver Lake and Ivanhoe reservoirs. Last fall, trace levels of bromate, a carcinogen, were found in this part of the city water system.

LADWP sent a handful of spokespersons including General Manager H. David Nahai who spoke to the issue of public trust as his key reasoning for dumping Silver Lake water that was found to contain trace levels of bromate.

"We wanted to show an abundance of caution so that mothers will feel completely assured that the water their kids are drinking is up to the highest standards," he said. Silver Lake water customers do not live in Silver Lake, but in East and South Los Angeles.

LADWP water engineers went to great lengths to explain how the bromate situation came about, including a powerpoint presentation by Dr. Pankaj Parekh, manager of water quality, and how the LADWP was caught offguard with the discovery. Bromate is created with a chemical reaction when bromide mixes with chlorine and sunlight under unique circumstances.

Levels were never high enough to cause any harm, but supreme precaution is now being taken. Silver Lake water is off line and its contents are being drained while Ivanhoe Reservoir will now serve as the primary source for LADWP customers. LADWP also unveiled a proposed system of black plastic balls that it may float on top of Ivanhoe Reservoir to block sunlight from reaching the surface, in order to prevent the kind of reaction that creates bromate from occuring again; this could happen as soon as May of this year.

A presentation of the plan for the Silver Lake Meadow formed the latter half of the meeting, opening with an overview of the project by Mia Lehrer, landscape architect.

The half-moon configuration allows for passive recreation use and provides the public closer access to water views without affecting the security of the reservoir complex.

The compromise plan was developed after dozens of community meetings lead by CD13 under the leadership of Councilmember Eric Garcetti, in which the meadow is located. Issues regarding the style and height of fencing are still under review.