Regarding your questions:
“So is there anything safe they can add to water to destroy any bromate?”

There are no “safe in any amount” compounds that could be added to do that, no.

“How about nature, such as fish or algae?”

Bromate is a carcinogen for a few species of mutant rats. It has been tested in the usual ways, and found NOT to be a carcinogen for many other species (not just rats), in levels thousands of times higher than found in this reservoir and for exposures of half an organism’s lifetime (a year). Bromate is found in Nature and most organisms have NO problems with it.

Bacteria will harvest oxygen from any compound, if it becomes oxygen deprived, such as being covered by balls and heated. This is how sulfate is converted to sulfide in the “swamp water” that many Floridians are forced to drink. But you usually don’t want these organisms thriving in yoru drinking water… pretty much why the chlorine was added in the first place.

So is there anything safe they can add to water to destroy any bromate? How about nature, such as fish or algae?

I’m not sure if I wrote some of this clearly about the wetlands part! According to the Environmental Report, they won’t close the reservoirs at all, just the pipes, which will lead the “real” water to the underground reservoirs at the Headlands, which is undeveloped land already owned by the DWP. I like that plan. They will let Silver Lake go natural!

It had not been reported in literature prior to this that *chlorine* can do this in the presence of visible light. Chlorine dioxide yes, but not chlorine.

However, this is a fairly tasty bit of PR, allowing public outrage to drive the necessary removal of this uncovered, non-compliant reservoir from the water distribution system. Harder to figure how they are going to sell the necessary enclosed (compliant) reservoir. And still have a “wetlands” appearance.