| Silver Lake Reservoir | |
|---|---|
| Silver Lake Reservoir in November 2009 | |
| Location | Silver Lake, Los Angeles, California |
| Lake type | Reservoir |
| Basin countries | United States |
| Max. length | 1.2 km (0.75 mi) |
| Max. width | 500 m (1,600 ft) |
| Surface area | 39 hectares (96 acres) |
| Water volume | 3,000,000 m3 (2,400 acre·ft) |
| Shore length1 | 3.2 km (2.0 mi) |
| Surface elevation | 433 ft (132 m) |
| References | U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Silver Lake Reservoir |
| 1 Shore length is not a well-defined measure. | |
The Silver Lake Reservoirs comprise two concrete-lined basins, Ivanhoe Reservoir and Silver Lake, divided by a spillway, in the Silver Lake community of Los Angeles, California.
Contents |
The lower body of water was named in 1906 for Water Board Commissioner Herman Silver, and in turn lends its name to the neighborhood.[1] The upper body received its name after the 1819 Sir Walter Scott novel Ivanhoe.[2]
The reservoirs are owned and maintained by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (DWP), and currently they provide water to 600,000 homes in downtown and South Los Angeles.[3] At capacity, it holds 795 million US gallons (3,010,000 m3) of water.[3] The Silver Lake Reservoir's water resources will be replaced by an underground reservoir in Griffith Park, slated for completion in January 2015.[4]
The reservoir is the focal point of the community and has evolved as a regional recreational resource. It is surrounded by several recreational areas, including a dog park on the south, a nursery school on the north, and the Silver Lake Recreation Center, which includes a basketball court on the south side of the lake. There is also a walking and jogging path, which stretches 2.2 miles (3.5 km) around the reservoir.[2] In April 2011, the City of Los Angeles opened up for public use a three-acre passive park on the east side of the lake dubbed the "Silver Lake Meadow," modeled after the Sheep Meadow in New York's Central Park.
In December 2007, the DWP announced that the Silver Lake and Ivanhoe reservoirs had both become contaminated with unusually high levels of the cancer-causing chemical bromate, and were immediately isolated.[5] The reservoirs were both drained over several weeks in March 2008,[1] and refilled in May 2008.[3] Two months later, 400,000 black hollow plastic "shade balls" were dumped in Ivanhoe, which remains in use, in the hopes to reduce the likelihood of the sunlight-fueled bromate. Silverlake Reservoir, too large to cover, was taken off-line permanently.[6][7] This incident pointed out the necessity of protecting the water supply by using underground tanks.