Lady, Lake and Lotuses Blossom Again

Angelenos spread out their blankets and picnic lunches in the shade on lush, green grass…children romped on a shiny new playground…Terns dipped and darted over the lake…neighbors laughed and talked as they strolled… everyone oohed and ahhed over the pink and yellow Lotus blooms…

On a sunny day in the middle of June, Echo Park Lake re-opened to the public after a two-year $45 million Proposition O-funded rehabilitation project that remedied its longtime water pollution problem. Now the lake meets California’s water quality standards and gives the Echo Park community an improved and more sustainable lake to enjoy. “Today we celebrate the rebirth of a lake, of a park and of a neighborhood,” stated Mayor-elect and current City of Los Angeles Councilmember Eric Garcetti, who opened the mid-morning ribbon-cutting ceremony. Also in attendance were Los Angeles City Councilmember Tom LaBonge, Board of Public Works President Capri Maddox, Bureau of Sanitation Director Enrique C. Zaldivar, City Engineer Gary Lee Moore and Department of Recreation and Parks General Manager Jon Kirk Mukri.

Echo Park Lake’s history dates back to the 1860s when it was built as Reservoir No. 4 for drinking water. The local legend is that Echo Park Lake and the surrounding community’s name came into being in the late 1800s after workers discovered that their voices “echoed” off the bluffs and hillsides to the east and west of the small canyon where Echo Park Lake is now located. Today the lake is a Los Angeles icon in the heart of the city that functions primarily as a detention basin in the City’s storm drain system with its water flowing ultimately into the LA River. It also provides recreational benefits and wildlife habitat and has played host to the annual Lotus Festival, which is scheduled to return in July 2014. Its iconic Lotus flowers are a constant source of beauty for painters and park goers alike.

In 2006, Echo Park Lake was identified by the State of California as an impaired water body. To solve this impairment, the City of Los Angeles utilized funds from Proposition O, the 2004 Clean Water Bond, to rehabilitate the lake. Key elements of the Echo Park Lake project include a new clay liner to reduce water leaking through the lake’s bottom, in-lake recirculation and aeration systems, wetland areas, porous pavement walking paths, underground stormwater diversion systems and trash screening devices, a playground for children, landscaping encircling the lake and a reconstructed Lotus bed.

And quietly overseeing all of the grand re-opening activities was Echo Park Lake’s Lady of the Lake 1930s Art Deco-styled statue, restored and enjoying her original view of the newly blooming Lotus flowers and, no doubt, smiling to herself at her lake’s, her Lotus’ and her own new beginning. 

Photos courtesy of City of Los Angeles, Department of Public Works.