Drinking In the View : Neighbors Oppose Plan to Cover Scenic City Reservoirs

Tucked in among the pines sits an aqua-blue lake, cool and motionless.

If it were not for the muffled hum of traffic from the nearby Hollywood Freeway, the scene could well be taken from the Sierra Nevada.

But while the lake may have a faraway feel, Upper Lake Hollywood is just a few miles from downtown Los Angeles.

And like so much of Southern California before it, the tiny lake is now threatened with a new look.

Upper Lake Hollywood is one of six inner-city reservoirs operated by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power that engineers want to cover over in black industrial drapes in an effort to keep out pollutants and improve the quality, safety and taste of tap water for 3.4 million city residents.

The plans have touched off a wave of protest from homeowners, environmentalists and joggers who frequent the rare inner-city open space and who want to keep the premium open-water views--even if they are usually filtered through 10-foot cyclone fences.

Since covering the reservoirs was proposed four years ago, groups have risen up in a community-by-community guerrilla war. Activists have filed lawsuits, sought to declare the sites historical landmarks and even persuaded state legislators to intervene in the issue, only to have the legislation killed by a gubernatorial veto.

Now, in a long-awaited escalation of the skirmish, both sides will be able to take their case to the public in a series of nine hearings to be held throughout the city Feb. 1 through Feb. 27 as part of an environmental impact report.

The issue pits the community’s need for safe drinking water against its need for open space. And whatever decision is reached, the outcome will cost from several hundred million dollars to more than $1 billion, according to DWP estimates.

Activists say they will “mobilize the troops” to pack the meetings and make their case to the DWP and the public, while DWP Board of Commissioners President Rick Caruso maintains he “has heard from a limited group of people. More people have to be part of the decision-making process.”

The DWP has proposed covering Upper Stone Canyon, Upper Hollywood, Ivanhoe, Santa Ynez, Elysian and Rowena reservoirs, which range from 14.6 acres to 5.7 acres. Planners have also proposed adding large filtration stations to an additional four open reservoirs--Lower Stone Canyon, Encino, Lower Hollywood and Silver Lake--that are considered too large and oddly shaped to be effectively covered. They range from 77 acres to 138 acres.

The meetings are scheduled for nine areas of the city, many far from any of the affected reservoirs.

Caruso said wide public input is being sought because the quality of water affects everyone served by DWP and the cost will be borne by all ratepayers. Open-water advocates say their supporters come from all areas of the city and are not clustered around the reservoirs.

“These are the last open reservoirs Los Angeles will ever have,” said Dale Flanagan of the Coalition to Preserve Open Reservoirs. “Let’s not throw away these assets for a bureaucratic boondoggle.”

But Caruso said the covers are necessary to keep out bird and rodent droppings, prevent human pollution of innumerable sources and block out sunlight that promotes the growth of troublesome algae.

Algae tends to combine with chlorine and form potentially carcinogenic compounds, trihalomethanes. The DWP’s water meets current state and federal standards, but officials fear they will not meet stricter regulations now under consideration.

“Ultimately, if the state and federal governments want (covers), we’ll have to do it,” Caruso said.

DWP officials say Los Angeles’ open reservoirs were built 60 to 80 years ago as storage for emergencies and peak summer demand and would never be allowed under current regulations.

Caruso, in an interview this week, recalled a delegation of water officials recently visiting from Moscow. “They have an archaic water system, light years behind us. But they were shocked that we were still using open reservoirs,” he said.

What many Angelenos may not realize is that the reservoirs “are the last stop. The only thing left is to add chlorine” before water flows to homeowners’ taps, said Walter Hoye, director of water engineering for the DWP.

Clearly no side in the issue wants to ignore water quality. But opponents say there are other considerations of import to the community.

“Whole communities have been built around these scenic gems. I deeply resent this retroactive planning,” said Ellen Stern Harris, director of the Fund of the Environment. “This is something (the DWP) should want because it is what the people want. . . . It’s something for the whole community.”

Open-reservoir advocates want to use the EIR process to force the DWP to search out alternatives. “They’ve got to come up with something better than these industrial covers,” said Sallie Neubauer, president of the Citizens Committee to Save Elysian Park.

Neubauer and others point to innovative solutions such as building reflecting ponds on top of the covers to give the appearance that a lake still exists, as a project in Oakland has done.

DWP officials say they are open to such ideas and suggest that many of the opponents’ concerns could be satisfied with additional landscaping. But they warn that some of the more creative solutions are also costly.

A reflecting pond, for instance, could be 20 times more expensive than a simple cover--or an estimated $20 million versus $1 million at a site such as Upper Lake Hollywood, Hoye said. A filtering station could cost an estimated 70 times more than covering.

Some officials privately question just how desirable the current views are.

While some of the reservoirs--such as Upper Lake Hollywood--are clearly pristine in appearance, others are scaled-down versions of the concrete-clad Los Angeles River. The Elysian Park reservoir, though sitting at the bottom of a dramatic deep canyon, sports expansive concrete aprons and thick algae slicks, and its dam fronts the Pasadena Freeway. Most of the impoundments are kept behind locked gates and high, barbed-wire-topped fences--inaccessible to the general public.

But, as Neubauer said, “It’s still very much enjoyed by the community.”

Some reservoirs have already been covered. The Highland, Ascot and San Pedro reservoirs have been covered for decades. In the past two years, Eagle Rock and Franklin reservoirs were covered, and a similar project is now under way at Green Verdugo reservoir.

Covering these reservoirs, which are mostly inaccessible to the public, did not evoke the same level of community outcry that is being raised over the six proposed covers.

PUBLIC HEARINGS ON RESERVOIRS The Department of Water and Power has proposed covering six inner-city reservoirs--Upper Stone Canyon, Upper Hollywood, Ivanhoe, Santa Ynez, Elysian and Rowena--in an effort to improve quality of tap water. Planners have also proposed adding large filtration stations to four open reservoirs: Lower Stone Canyon, Encino, Lower Hollywood, and Silver Lake--that are considered too large or oddly-shaped to be effectively covered. Public hearings have been scheduled at the sites listed below.

1. East San Fernando Valley Thursday Feb. 1 7:30 p.m. Byrd Junior High School Multipurpose Room 9171 Telfair Ave. Sun Valley 2. West Los Angeles Tuesday Feb. 6 7:30 p.m. Paul Revere Junior High School Multipurpose Room 1450 Allenford Ave. Brentwood 3. South Bay Area Thursday Feb. 8 7:30 p.m. Orville Wright Junior High School Social Hall 6550 W. 80th St. Westchester (enter through the gate on Cowan Avenue) 4. Central Los Angeles Saturday Feb. 10 9:30 a.m. University Hilton Hotel The 1880 Room 3540 S. Figueroa St. Los Angeles Validated parking at Joe’s Parking Lot 3450 S. Figueroa St. ( 1/2 block north of hotel) 5. Silver Lake Area Thursday Feb. 15 7:30 p.m. Marshall High School Auditorium 3939 Tracy St. Los Feliz/Silver Lake 6. San Pedro Thursday Feb. 22 7:30 p.m. San Pedro High School Library 1001 W. 15th St. San Pedro 7. Hollywood Area Saturday Feb. 24 9:30 a.m. Le Conte Junior High School Auditorium 1316 N. Bronson Ave. Hollywood 8. East Los Angeles Monday Feb. 26 7:30 p.m. Eagle Rock High School Cafeteria 1750 Yosemite Drive Eagle Rock (Park in the lot on La Roda Street and then walk up the ramp) 9. West San Fernando Valley Tuesday Feb. 27 7:30 p.m. Canoga Park High School Cafeteria 6850 Topanga Canyon Blvd. Canoga Park