Silver Lake Stinks!

I happen to have an excellent sense of taste and smell, which is one of those make-it-up-to-you things you get when you have to wear glasses since third grade. I’ve even thought of getting a taster job at Baskin-Robbins, based in Burbank!

Anyway, I promised early on that I would tell you if Silver Lake started to smell funny as they drained it. One night it smelled bad, but I couldn’t identify that it was the lake. Tonight there was no doubt; it smelled just like how a water can or jug of water smells that you’ve left outside for a few days in your garden: rank, bitter, and greenish. This is on a very cool evening– I’m sure it smells much worse in the daytime. The reservoirs will always have a shallow puddle on the bottom, since they are built on groundwater (which is a GOOD idea,) and so the smell and decay will just get worse.

Many people won’t get this ice cream cartoon.

It’s been 2 weeks since the lake has been drained. LADWP has done nothing to clean it, or refill it.

Even though the moon is half full, there were no signs or sounds of animal life either; no coyotes, geese, ducks, or owls.

Please explain again why the whole area is at the mercy of the LADWP’s non-work ethic – the same department that put TOO MUCH CHLORINE in the water, which started the whole bromide scare. Because the DWP can’t, or won’t, tell us the real problem.

Speaking of, I get the LA Times 4 days a week. (It was just 3 days, the weekend, and then without so much as a by your leave, delivery changed to include Thursday, too.) It’s really more than I wanted. I get most of my news from lao (who picks out the good parts so I don’t have to ;)), or from Jimmy Kimmel, or from World News Now, I think it’s called, on ABC at 2AM. (I used to get it from Phil Hendrie, THE BEST TALK SHOW IN THE UNIVERSE. Not here anymore.) But I get annoyed when I read the Times too much – could it be their liberal slant on every little thing? – so I had to cancel the daily paper some time ago. And I’m starting to get annoyed again, with 4 papers a week… So I’m going to start a new category here called The Land the Times Forgot, because they did.

Have to say, I was disappointed when the California section finally mentioned that Silver Lake had been drained. 12 days after the fact, and it was meh. The photos were dull, and the LADWP didn’t tell us anything, probably because the reporter didn’t ask anything. Why? Do utilities automatically get a free pass? Like why was it drained and not filtered? Since chlorine was the problem, couldn’t that have been adjusted? They haven’t done anything more in 2 weeks, WHY? Why will bird balls be used, when birds are not the problem, the DWP’s overuse of chlorine is? And exactly how many extra man hours does this give the DWP to bill the city for?

The LADWP’s PR guy on the site is Joe Ramallo. I called him last Tuesday, and no call back yet. I guess he was too busy giving the 2 sentences to the LAT that are a repetition of what is on their website. (Remember, I couldn’t email anyone there because the DWP doesn’t have email yet!)

I have a feeling I will get even more annoyed with the Times as I continue to dig where they should be digging. Stay tuned.