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 ...
The same reason green house windows are white.
Black absorbs the heat on the surface, white lets it pass to the inside.
Same reason a Bedouin's tent is black.
If they were schmart, the balls are asymmetric, with a heavy side that always points down so the wetted surface doesn't roll to the top and hasten evaporation (that could 'splain why so many in the photo didn't roll down the concrete slope into the drink)...
No sunlight will kill the plants and no plants will kill the fish
People will be drinking fish sauce from their faucets
#blackballsmatter
lol
Oh, and black would shade the water. No sunlight, no algae...
Because White would be racist! Also it would quickly put the lie to the balls keeping out dirt and other contaminants like bird droppings and piss by showing obviously on the white background.
#blackballsmatter
I suspect the balls will leach some sort of cancer causing chemical into the water supply.
Black absorbs the Sun`s rays the most of all colors, so won`t this just heat the water faster, thereby PROMOTING evaporation?
Interesting to see what kind of microbes grow at the interface between balls/water. Might grow a new kind of legionnaires disease in there. At least they’ll kill them with chlorination in the drinking water. But who really knows what will come of this?
There are reports that due to the drought that the Delta Smelt may be extinct ... That would be great ... the idiot moves California made to protect this chub minnow helped create the huge farm problem ...
Black balls are going to produce from very hot water..
Just a guess but black inhibits algae, promotes shade, and black plastic doesn't break down from UV nearly as fast.
This will block UV radiation from the sun which is a natural disinfectant.
Ive always wanted nuoc mam straight from the tap.
The balls are probably poor thermal conductors. Their top surface will get hot but not much of that heat will make it down to the water. They will reradiate quite a bit of heat back into the atmosphere and they will heat the air above the water by convection. In both cases energy that otherwise would have gone into the water is redirected and allowed to dissipate. The net effect is cooler water and less evaporation. But I’d guess the main way the balls work is by reducing the area of the water that’s exposed to the air.
“Why not white?”
That would be rasiss!
[I wonder what sort of environmental damage this will cause]
I would think all those balls would be hazardous to water fowl.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.