Plastic Balls Cover Reservoir to Protect it From Sunlight

Posted by Alex in Everything Else on June 11, 2008 at 4:10 am


The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power dropped the ball … literally! They dumped over 400,000 small plastic balls into the Ivanhoe Reservoir in order to protect the drinking water supply:

The water needs to be shaded because when sunlight mixes with the bromide and chlorine in Ivanhoe’s water, the carcinogen bromate forms, said Pankaj Parekh, DWP’s director for water quality compliance. Bromide is naturally present in groundwater and chlorine is used to kill bacteria, he said, but sunlight is the final ingredient in the potentially harmful mix. [...]

A tarp would have been too expensive and a metal cover would take too long to install, especially in a year of drought. So one of the DWP’s biologists, Brian White, suggested "bird balls," commonly used by airports to prevent birds from congregating in wet areas alongside runways.

Francisco Vara-Orta of the Los Angeles Times has the story: Link (with video)

(Photo: Irfan Khan / LA Times)


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10 comments to "Plastic Balls Cover Reservoir to Protect it From Sunlight"

  1. MoonCake
    June 11th, 2008 at 4:43 am

    lets hope this doesn't contribute to the already expanding plastic mass floating around in the pacific...

  2. clinton robert labombard
    June 11th, 2008 at 6:01 am

    Yeah, that'll fix it. We could just stop using chlorine, but that'd be an inconvenience to chlorine producers. Nah, let's just dump some plastic balls in which block the sunlight, which kills the plants, which kills the fish, keeps birds from wanting anything to do with the place, ultimately reducing our food supplies even further and driving up prices, likely not helping the original problem in the least, oh and then there's the cleanup and the fact that plastic balls don't biodegrade without 'encouragement' from Modern Science... damn dirty apes.

  3. jmp478
    June 11th, 2008 at 7:13 am

    What the hell are you talking about? They were putting chlorine and bromide into the drinking water storage to kill bacteria and pathogens. The sunlight was causing the two chemicals to form bromate, a carcinogen to form. Did you even read the article? They aren't dumping these balls into natural lakes for the hell of it. They're putting them into man-made reservoirs that hold drinking water. They already keep fish from living in storage water because the fish would contaminate it if they didn't. Even if they let fish live there, why would they catch and sell fish in such a small body of water? The fish wouldn't be able to multiply fast enough for us to catch them.

  4. avraamov
    June 11th, 2008 at 9:04 am

    that, folks, is one of the most beautiful pieces of art i've seen in a long time. i'll give a hundred pesos to the first person to send me a hydrophone recording of that lake on a windy day!

  5. Justin
    June 11th, 2008 at 11:19 am

    When I saw the picture I thought there is no way in hell they could fill it with those balls. After watching the video I stand corrected. :)

  6. matt
    June 11th, 2008 at 11:26 am

    oh balls.

  7. Pele
    June 11th, 2008 at 12:54 pm

    @clinton robert labombard :
    The reason that those chemicals are in the water is because the LADWP stores their water treated. There are no fish to kill in those particular reservoirs. This will actually reduce chlorine usage because the lack of sunlight will reduce the number of algal blooms thus, less treatment is needed to keep the water clean. An no the balls won't biodegrade , that's the point, they will just be collected later or left in the reservoir. This is just a quick solution for the need to cover the reservoir.

  8. Neatoramawontsendmeapassword
    June 11th, 2008 at 2:19 pm

    Now they just have to worry about the sunlight causing chemicals to leach from the plastics. But who doesn't want a bit more xenoestrogen in their drinking water?

  9. DOJ
    June 11th, 2008 at 4:01 pm

    why did they use black balls? white balls would've kept the water cooler by reflecting sunlight, and i assume white plastic lasts longer in sunlight compared to black plastic.

  10. jenny
    June 11th, 2008 at 9:14 pm

    DOJ, i thought the exact same thing... wtf

    and i agree... cause there isnt already enough plastic and other chemicals in our water, this just makes sure of it?


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