I get an email from an engineer about bird poop.

Well, who can define a present, really? Different things to different folks.

Someone forwarded an email to me from a water engineer:

This made me laugh! She is an entertaining, if uninformed, writer.

Bromate is a known carcinogen at the concentrations found in Silverlake Reservoir. LADWP needs to prevent its formation by reducing sunlight on the water. And LADWP cannot take the reservoirs out of service without risking water reliability. Many pipes are made out of HDPE (as are the bird balls) and it is approved by the National Science Foundation for use in drinking water conveyance. I’d rather have HDPE in my water than bird poop. What LADWP really needs is more covered storage. And it’s hard to build it when nobody wants it near them.

The birds are eating the bugs, bug eggs, slime and parameciums in the water, and in return, they give us something.

Crow in Silver Lake before the draining. This is my favorite photo so far this year! It reminds me of 19th century silhouettes, although it would take a very sharp pair of scissors.

You could look at the Silver Lake catastrophe as a game that LA DWP has set up! All the grocery stores now have a choice as to Organic or Chemical/treated food, and DWP has joined the crowd. Would you rather your water be organic or treated with chemicals? I’ll take organic, thanks.

Not only that, but remember that Silver Lake is in two parts, Ivanhoe and Silver Lake reservoirs, and the Silver Lake Reservoir part will be UNCOVERED, is bigger and more stagnant, will attract more birds, and bromate could raise its ugly head even quicker there! So think of your drinking water as a lottery: what will your DWP ticket say? Which side will you drink from?

Mr. or Ms. Engineer, thanks for your comments on HDPE, too. I know it is supposed to be stable, and has been approved by the FDA for some water bottles (although in my opinion the FDA is wrong about a lot of things, they could be right on this); however, I did quote this in an earlier post about HDPE pipes from Environment News Service:

Long-term use of high-density polyethylene drainage pipes could result in prolonged contamination of the water table as well as ecological and environmental damage, a Princeton study warned today. (more here)

As I wrote earlier, Headlands was approved in 2005 for the underground storage. It’s a perfect site, already owned by the DWP, in an industrial area. You can see it from Elysian Park, if you dare to go there: sort of next to the LA River, with lots of train tracks. Below Forest Lawn Cemetery…nobody to complain there.

PS: There are actually 4 crows in the photo! I was so taken by the one on the top that I didn’t even see the others, even in the raw photo! I guess he would be the first plucked out by a predator…