Posted on 08/11/2015 5:34:59 PM PDT by dead
With no apparent relief to California's record-breaking drought, Los Angeles has turned to more unusual methods to protect the city's water.
Officials recently released 96 million floating 'shade balls' into the 75-acre Los Angeles Reservoir in Sylmar, California.
The black plastic balls are designed to help protect the water against dust, rain, chemicals and wildlife, as well as prevent 300 million gallons of water from evaporating each year.
The balls work by floating on the surface and blocking the sun's rays.
As well as protecting against evaporation, they also prevent the chemical reaction that creates the carcinogenic compound bromate.
For most people, exposure to bromate - created from naturally-occurring bromide in water -is unlikely to be cause problems.
But some people who ingest large amounts of bromate have suffered nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and abdominal pain.
The balls also form a protective barrier across the surface that helps keep birds, animals and other contaminants out.
Dr Brian White, a now-retired Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP biologist), was the first person to think of using shade balls for water quality....
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
It takes balls to dump pollutants into a reservoir and hope for the best.
Uuuummm, why are they black???? That absorbs heat adding to evaporation. Why not white?
God where does one even begin to file the lawsuits coming from of this brilliant plan.
And how did Caly get this by the greenies?
Oh wait. Same people. It’s good when they do it.
Or, silver?
Pass the popcorn, but stay upwind...
Remember how Portland drained an entire reservoir because some idiot urinated in it? As if birds and other animals don’t similarly contaminate the area??? But so many people had their sensibilities offended by a man urinating into the reservoir.
I wish I had the contract to supply California with billions of black ping pong balls.
Maybe California Native Americans (Indians, for those if us less politically correct) can get the rain making contract.
Probably to prevent animals from being attracted to the reflection of these balls and drowning.
Send some to the GOP-e.
Old WC Fields joke — “Don’t drink the water! Fish f*** in it!”
I wonder if there are any fish in that reservoir? If so, they will be going belly up and rotting...
My guess is they use carbon black to block UV and keep the plastic pliable longer. Most plastic exposed to the sun is black for this reason.
It will make the balls heat up more and cause evaporation, though.
government stupidity.. duh ;)
“Send some to the GOP-e.”
They wouldn’t know what to do with them. The concept of “balls” is completely foreign to their thought and being.
But don’t put a dam on a river, or you might harm a minnow. Lunatics.
White balls wouldn’t be politically correct?
I heard on the news that these balls are only good for about 8 years, then they degrade and have to be removed.. And it cost $34 million dollars to purchase them. What if some kid or animal falls in...you’d never see him/her under the balls. It sounds cuckoo technology to me.
They are polluting the water to stop a natural process
They are causing man-made climate change!!
If there's enough wind and wave motion to make the balls rotate, won't they cause more evaporation as they expose the wet side to the air? There balls will have more surface area than the surface of the reservoir so they'll be able to expose more water to the air.
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