Water Begins to Flow Back Into Silver Lake Reservoir Complex

After two years of sitting empty, Silver Lake’s namesake and signature icon is being refilled.

City officials cranked open the tower valves to begin refilling the Silver Lake Reservoir complex on Tuesday, nearly a year ahead of schedule. The 96-acre reservoir is expected to be fully refilled by the middle of June. Officials previously said refilling would begin in May and take about one year. Now water is expected to reach the Silver Lake Reservoir’s historic level of 440 feet above sea level within two months.

Water gushed into the smaller Ivanhoe Reservoir on Tuesday, where it is expected to fill the space and then spill over into the larger, adjacent Silver Lake Reservoir within about two weeks, city officials said. The early start date is due to months of powerful winter storms that soaked California and caused record snowpack levels in the Eastern Sierra.

“After years of drought, we finally had above average precipitation across California. As a result, the Sierra snowpack is over 200% of normal,” said L.A. City Councilman Mitch O’Farrell, whose district includes part of the reservoir. “As the snow melts, the over-abundance of water will come our way via the aqueduct.”

Read the full story on LATimes.com. 

The @LADWP and council members are refilling the Silver Lake Reservoir Complex early with excess runoff from Eastern Sierra snowpack @KTLA http://pic.twitter.com/x1ZduhG8gn

— Chris Gierowski (@tepall14) April 26, 2017

from KTLA http://ift.tt/2oC2slz