Crystal Blue Persuasion? Don't Let the New Echo Park Lake Fool You

This story was posted by Craig Clough. It was written by Natalie Rivera.

Looking at the renovated Echo Park Lake may tempt you to dive in and go for a refreshing swim in the blue water, and quite a few people have already gone for a dip since the lake was reopened to the public on Saturday after a two-year, $42 million renovation.

Though the upgraded blue lake may seem like the perfect, healthy color after having been a muddy brown-to-green for so long, don't let it mesmerize you into a cool swim. The blue color is the result of an unnatural dye.

"People are not permitted to swim in the lake," said Ari Bessendorf, president of the Greater Echo Park Elysian Neighborhood Council. "I believe that people are very excited that [the lake] is open. You know blue water and everything, even though it’s a poisonous dye... I think people are overly enthused but the lake is not for swimming."

According to the eastsiderLA, the dye used on the lake is actually meant to provide nutrients for the revived lotus plants and to also control algae. The blue color was an unintended effect, and one that should wear off in a few days. 

However, the lake’s unnatural color and the fact that it functions primarily as a detention basin in the city’s storm drain system hasn't stopped plenty of people from jumping in, and neither have the obvious signs that read: "No Swimming" and "No Diving."

On Monday, several children were seen swimming in the lake (see the attached video.)

Patch reader Mary Farina left the following comment on our story about Saturday's grand opening: "Kids were going into the water there and swimming out into the lake or lingering to wade and play in the water. The signs say no swimming allowed but they are not enough to keep kids out of the lake. I doubt the water lilies will thrive if people continue to swim there."

KCRW also reported that police had to ask some children to get out of the lake on Saturday. 

Still not convinced the lake isn't a great place to cool off in the summer heat, or to let your children swim in? Atop of the potentially toxic blue dye, the fact that it is storm drain runoff and that is illegal, there are the 60 drownings that have occurred there, many of them children.

According to eastsiderLA, the large number of drownings were first documented in the late 1800s, and the first report of a child drowning was in 1901. After that first report of a child drowning, there has been at least one incident of a child drowning every three to four years.

Bessendorf said he hopes people stay out of the lake, but feels the problem may be a reoccurring one.

"The challenge is to maintain this nice investment that we’ve made to the lake, and part of it has to do with security there and that people aren’t going into the lake and there are signs there," Bessendorf said. "It’s going to be an ongoing issue."