Posted on 05/11/2019 10:00:14 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
I took a boat through 96 million black plastic balls on the Los Angeles reservoir to find out why they're there. The first time I heard about shade balls the claim was they reduce evaporation. But it turns out this isn't the reason they were introduced.
Huge thanks to LADWP for arranging this special tour for me. Next time let's put the GoPro on the submersible!
The balls are made of high density polyethylene (HDPE) which is less dense than water so they float on the surface of the reservoir even if they break apart. They are 10cm (4 inches) in diameter and contain about 210ml of water. So the main reason they are on the reservoir is to block sunlight from entering the water and triggering a chemical reaction that turns harmless bromide into carcinogenic bromate. This effect occurs with prolonged exposure to bromate so regulators insist that levels be kept below 10 microgram per liter on average over a 12 month period.
Special thanks to Patreon supporters:
Donal Botkin, Michael Krugman, Ron Neal, Stan Presolski, Terrance Shepherd, Penward Rhyme and everyone who provided feedback on an early draft of this video.
Thanks to:
Las Virgenes Reservoir for footage of initial shade ball dump
Euro-Matic for bird into jet-engine footage
Researched and Produced by Casey Rentz
Animations by Maria Raykova
Music from http://epidemicsound.com "Colorful Animation 4" "Seaweed"
And from Kevin MacLeod "Marty Gots a Plan"
This is an educational video about the science of water quality.
(Excerpt) Read more at youtube.com ...
Thanks KC. Looks like LA’s almost given up on the shade ball approach, but due to federal requirements has to cover the reservoir.
L.A. Says Goodbye to ‘Shade Balls’
by Elizabeth Daigneau | December 2015
https://www.governing.com/topics/transportation-infrastructure/gov-shade-balls-water-quality.html
Black balls, scoogaloo, watcha think they’re gonna do, black balls, scoogaloo...
Watch the vid, it lowers the temperature.
As soon as they're rolling along a nearby road while texting and shooting another idiotic episode, and plunge off the pavement into the water and to their deaths.
LOL
Fuchsia was too expensive, there's a shortage of it due to all the fuchsia power research.
Luckily there's no outlet to the Pacific.
I knew a girl who used to sail around with blue balls, her first husband.
After the divorce, did he name his new boat "The Golddigger"? :^)
yes but she got the blue balls
Couldn’t the same thing be done with straws?
“Bromide is present in typical seawater (35 PSU) with a concentration of around 65 mg/L, which is around 0.2% of all dissolved salts. Seafoods and deep sea plants generally have high levels of bromide, while foods derived from land have variable amounts. Bromargyryte - natural, crystalline silver bromide - is the most common bromide mineral currently known. It is still very rare. Beside silver, bromine is sometimes found in minerals combined with mercury and copper.[3]”
Does this mean they will cover the seas too? Apparently normal sea water has about 650 times that in the LA Lake.
Lol
They might consider the method employed by Constantinople's architects.
Hopefully he counted all 96,000,000 balls to make sure they’re all there!
Well I think this is RAAAAS
est
Well I think this is RAASEST, cause there aint no white balls in there.
Orbees from hell.
CC
CC
I don’t believe these explanations. This reservoir is directly under where that historic UFO sighting “Battle of LA” occurred in 1942.
Why Are 96,000,000 Black Balls on This Reservoir?
Easy! Last week a Trump rally was held nearby on a day with gusty winds.
Next morning, security cameras noticed dozens of MAGA hat floating in the reservoir.
Facebook, Google, YouTube and Twitter immediately dispactched hundreds of truckloads to respond to this “breach of community standards”!
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