Silver Lake Reservoir, a Los Angeles landmark, will be temporarily drained in early July so a new pipeline can be built to replace an aging one from the 1950s.
Some 400 million gallons of water drained from the reservoir will be treated by four portable treatment facilities, and added to the water supply distribution system, according to Susan Rowghani, the director of the LADWP water engineering and technical services division.
Open-air reservoirs like Silver Lake and Ivanhoe, were removed from the statewide system for storing drinking water in 2013 because open-air reservoirs failed to meet federal standards.
Drinking water storage in reservoirs such as Silver Lake will be replaced by LADWP project Headworks, which includes two 54 and 56 million gallon covered reservoirs between Burbank and Griffith Park.
Although the path around the Silver Lake Reservoir won't have the same scenic views, it will remain open during construction.
It was last drained in 2008 because the water was contaminated with bromate produced by sunlight reacting to chlorine and bromides in the stored water, a reaction officials hadn't seen before, Rowghani said.
Silver Lake Reservoir is expected to stay dry for over a year, but will be refilled after the pipeline is replaced.
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Some residents such as Anne-Marie Johnson are pleased that the DWP plans to refill the reservoir once the work is complete.
"Silver Lake wouldn't be the great community it is and has been without the reservoir," said Johnson, who sits on the governing board of the Silver Lake Neighborhood Council.
