Two Big Prop O Projects Begin

The City Council approved six projects under Prop O, the half-billion-dollar water-quality bond that Los Angeles voters approved by a 74% margin in 2004. Two of the projects were Machado Lake (the once and ? home of Reggie the caiman/gator) and Echo Park Lake.

I'm excited about the two lake projects. A great deal of the water that flows into our rivers, onto our beaches and into our bay sit in Echo Park Lake and Machado Lake. Clean them and clean the whole region. In CD13, our accomplishment in Echo Park Lake will be four-fold: we'll cut our bacteria count, get into compliance with federal pollution regulations, we'll eliminate pollution from downstream, and we'll improve the park with beautiful, environmental amenities like replacing the lawn grass with grassy swales that filter runoff before it even hits the water.

The next phase for the lake is a design stage; construction should begin towards the end of 2010. There will be a very active public input process for the design phase, and I will let you know more in this space as it progresses.