Lakes & Reservoirs
Los Angeles County

Morris Reservoir in the San Gabriel Mountains. Los Angeles Almanac Photo.

Castaic Lake (2,230 surface acres) is Los Angeles County's largest lake of any type. Machado Lake in the Harbor City neighborhood of Los Angeles (45 surface acres) is the county's largest natural lake.

The Piute Ponds in northern Los Angeles County are the largest remaining freshwater wetlands in the county.

The Baldwin Hills Dam/Reservoir disaster in 1963 was the first time aerial news footage was televised live to cover a news event. Television station KTLA pioneered the use of a helicopter to cover the incident.

In 2015, the 175 acre surface of the Los Angeles Reservoir was covered with 96 million black shade balls to minimize water evaporation and conserve water during the drought. It was projected that the shade balls would save about 300 million gallons of water a year. The balls cost 36 cents. Critics of the effort, however, suggest that the black balls raise resevior heat levels, thus creating a higher risk of bacterial growth. They further suggest that the city’s plan is not actually to minimize evaporation, but, rather, to avoid steep fines for failing EPA requirements for physical covers over potable water reservoirs.

See Why Are 96,000,000 Black Balls Floating on the Los Angeles Reservoir?

The Los Angeles Reservoir holds 3.3 billion gallons of water, which could supply enough water to meet the needs of the entire city for up to three weeks.