Los Angeles dumps 20K ‘shade balls’ into reservoir to stop evaporation

[Serpo]

Los Angeles dumps 20K ‘shade balls’ into reservoir to stop evaporationPublished time: 11 Aug, 2015 21:58
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Desperate to preserve its water supply amid a four-year drought, Los Angeles is turning a reservoir into a ball pit. It may not seem like the most scientific approach, but officials say the “shade balls” will protect valuable H2O in the City of Angels.
Bringing new meaning to the term “throwing shade,” authorities claim the black, plastic balls will preserve the Van Normal reservoir’s water supply in several ways.


For starters, the shade provided by the balls is expected to prevent 300 million gallons of water from evaporating annually.
“By reducing evaporation, these shade balls will conserve 300 million gallons of water each year, instead of just evaporating into the sky. That’s 300 million gallons to fight this drought,” Mayor Eric Garcetti said, as quoted by KABC News.
That’s enough to provide drinking water for 8,100 people for a full year, Councilman Mitch Englander said, according to a Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) press release.
The balls will also prevent a chemical reaction caused by the sun which is known to create a carcinogenic compound called bromate.

Lastly, the protective barrier formed across the surface of the water by the small spheres will help stave off contaminants from birds and other animals.
While these may seem like lofty claims for plastic balls that look like they belong in a preschool, the shade balls are at least slightly more advanced than they appear.
Unlike their colorful childhood counterparts, the balls contain water that weights them down and helps keep them in place.
But it takes a lot of balls to shield a 175-acre reservoir from the sun – about 20,000 had to be deployed to achieve effective coverage.

Although the city’s mayor took part in the balls’ release, it wasn’t exactly a spectacular event. In fact, it simply required dumping the spheres out of big sacks and letting them roll down a ramp into the water.
But the shade balls – which now total 96 million and cover three other reservoirs – have cost the city a spectacular amount of money, coming in at just under $35 million.
Los Angeles is the first city in the US to use shade balls, which city officials say should last about 10 years. After that date, they will be removed, recycled, and replaced, the LADWP said.

https://www.rt.com/usa/312219-shade-balls-california-drought/

[madfranks]

My first thought is that the spheres floating on the surface of the water dramatically increase the potential of wet surface area across the whole reservoir. As the wind blows and the spheres rotate and spin, they expose a larger wet surface area to the sun. Increasing the wet surface area seems to me would actually increase evaporation, not reduce it. But I'm sure there's some other science going on here that I don't know yet.

[expat4ever]

Doesn't black absorb heat?

[gunDriller]

Doesn't black absorb heat?

they're shade balls. cheap shade balls.

seems like white would work better but maybe it wouldn't provide as much shade ?


i last used dark green see through fabric on a shade-cloth/ deer protection shield.

Now I have RUN OUT of mosquito netting, and I am going to the fabric to look at see sthrough fabric ...

AKA negligee fabric


as my imitation mosquito netting for my shade masks and deer protection.

I could live with yellow, white, green, brown, nothing bright.

I am preferring to make the shadecloth than to buy it.

[madfranks]

Doesn't black absorb heat?

Great point. So we fill a reservoir with black spheres and expect the sun to evaporate less water from the surface?

[Cebu_4_2]

Great point. So we fill a reservoir with black spheres and expect the sun to evaporate less water from the surface?


They said it works.

[Serpo]

Black being about 15 degrees hotter than white ......

In OZ they often grow a purple variety of duck weed on dams for this purpose.


If this dosnt work it will be a massive balls up.................

[Dogman]

Black being about 15 degrees hotter than white ......

In OZ they often grow a purple variety of duck weed on dams for this purpose.


If this dosnt work it will be a massive balls up................. That is a very ballsy thing to say ! ;)

[madfranks]

They said it works.

"They" being the lobbyists for the local plastic manufacturing company. "Hey you know what that reservoir needs? To be filled with black plastic balls, it'll keep the drought from getting worse, trust me, I'm a lobbyist, the science is settled, and my company can give you truckloads of black plastic balls for only $35 million!"

[Hitch]

This whole idea is so stupidly insane, you can't make it up. Could you imagine if you had waterfront property and they did something like that right next to your home? Just another reason why CA is hellbent on driving people away to move to better areas.

[Hitch]

Great point. So we fill a reservoir with black spheres and expect the sun to evaporate less water from the surface?

It's the surface area of the water that determines how much evaporation takes place. Black is just ugly. They should have made the balls clear plastic at least. Also, what about the fish in the reservoir? Where is fish and game? Oxygen, needed by the fish, comes from the surface of the water.

[madfranks]

It's the surface area of the water that determines how much evaporation takes place. Black is just ugly. They should have made the balls clear plastic at least. Also, what about the fish in the reservoir? Where is fish and game? Oxygen, needed by the fish, comes from the surface of the water.

Yes, but the cumulative surface area of the balls is greater than the flat surface area of the water. The balls will be wet from floating in the water, and when the wind blows and the balls rotate, you have a massive surface area of wet black plastic. My money is on this increasing evaporation, not decreasing it.

They actually make little portable humidity loggers which will log humidity levels at programmed intervals. For $35 million, they should have done a preliminary baseline study of the humidity levels above the reservoir for one month without the balls, then after the balls drop they could follow up and see if humidity is increasing or decreasing. If evaporation is diminished, the local humidity over the reservoir would decrease; if the black balls increase evaporation, the humidity will increase. This isn't rocket science here.

[Serpo]

This whole idea is so stupidly insane, you can't make it up. Could you imagine if you had waterfront property and they did something like that right next to your home? Just another reason why CA is hellbent on driving people away to move to better areas.


These would look heaps better ......


https://images.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=http%3A%2F%2Fpeople.ucsc.edu%2F%7Ejboots%2Frubb er%2520ducky.jpg&f=1

[Cebu_4_2]

In a northern state in mid summer I would lose 1 inch of water every sunny day. That seriously adds up.

These liquid filled black balls will block light getting in to warm the water but those black balls will heat up considerably at the surface. I don't really think they will spin much at all but heating the surface I don't think will help a bit.

Good idea though especially for a mare 35 mil.

I saw Donald J Trump on video and he approves this message.

[Hitch]

Yes, but the cumulative surface area of the balls is greater than the flat surface area of the water. The balls will be wet from floating in the water, and when the wind blows and the balls rotate, you have a massive surface area of wet black plastic. My money is on this increasing evaporation, not decreasing it.

They actually make little portable humidity loggers which will log humidity levels at programmed intervals. For $35 million, they should have done a preliminary baseline study of the humidity levels above the reservoir for one month without the balls, then after the balls drop they could follow up and see if humidity is increasing or decreasing. If evaporation is diminished, the local humidity over the reservoir would decrease; if the black balls increase evaporation, the humidity will increase. This isn't rocket science here.

All good points. I didn't realize the whole project had a cost of 35 million. All they have to do, is dump 20,000 balls into the reservoir, and it costs 35 million dollars to do that? No fucking way it should cost that much. I work a lot of jobs marine construction, this just doesn't add up, the cost of this worthless project.

Another reason to leave CA, our taxes are paying for this.

[Serpo]

All good points. I didn't realize the whole project had a cost of 35 million. All they have to do, is dump 20,000 balls into the reservoir, and it costs 35 million dollars to do that? No fucking way it should cost that much. I work a lot of jobs marine construction, this just doesn't add up, the cost of this worthless project.

Another reason to leave CA, our taxes are paying for this.


Thats a mere 1750$ per ball , cheap if you worked for the pentagon........................

http://ep.yimg.com/ca/I/eprice_2264_3535063

http://ep.yimg.com/ca/I/eprice_2268_18376 http://ep.yimg.com/ca/I/eprice_2268_19645

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didnt you know who build a web site for (obama care ) over 1 billion.........

[monty]

Hitch, that is not $35 million for 20,000 balls.


But the shade balls – which now total 96 million and cover three other reservoirs – have cost the city a spectacular amount of money, coming in at just under $35 million.
Los Angeles is the first city in the US to use shade balls, which city officials say should last about 10 years. After that date, they will be removed, recycled, and replaced, the LADWP said.

https://www.rt.com/usa/312219-shade-...ornia-drought/ (https://www.rt.com/usa/312219-shade-balls-california-drought/)

[Cebu_4_2]

All good points. I didn't realize the whole project had a cost of 35 million. All they have to do, is dump 20,000 balls into the reservoir, and it costs 35 million dollars to do that? No fucking way it should cost that much. I work a lot of jobs marine construction, this just doesn't add up, the cost of this worthless project.

Another reason to leave CA, our taxes are paying for this.

You are making great K being and working there. Forget living your whole life there but save and GTFO. Here in a very decent area close to rivers costs less than 250K. Women can be found everywhere except bars. I hit a bunch and it was all a short ordeal

Save your trinkets Pete What you want PM me.

[Hitch]

Hitch, that is not $35 million for 20,000 balls.



https://www.rt.com/usa/312219-shade-...ornia-drought/ (https://www.rt.com/usa/312219-shade-balls-california-drought/)

Thanks Monty, glad to know I was missing something there. 96 million balls, what a world we live in.

[Hitch]

You are making great K being and working there. Forget living your whole life there but save and GTFO. Here in a very decent area close to rivers costs less than 250K. Women can be found everywhere except bars. I hit a bunch and it was all a short ordeal

Save your trinkets Pete What you want PM me.

Thanks, Cebu. Tough one for me though. As much as I hate where CA is going, and is actually, I love the ocean. It's my career and my passion. Hard to think about living so far away.

I guess that's why I think a big collapse could be a good thing. A clean slate so to speak.

[Glass]

If they did this, the water level would rise from all the lead that would end up in the reservoir. But certainly this seems like one of the stupidest things I've seen this week for all the reasons pointed out here. Screens or sun shades would have been better.

It's full on Idiocracy in all its glory.


These would look heaps better ......


https://images.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=http%3A%2F%2Fpeople.ucsc.edu%2F%7Ejboots%2Frubb er%2520ducky.jpg&f=1

[Serpo]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=16&v=lqhF2JpZBVs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cb9huIhOO00
By Melissa Dykes (http://truthstreammedia.com/2015/08/12/hormone-disrupting-nightmare-ca-just-dumped-millions-of-plastic-balls-into-l-a-s-drinking-water/)

Hormone-mimicking, endocrine-disrupting nightmare?
Wow. Just… wow.
You know it’s bad when the people in charge have decided the “answer” to keeping the water from evaporating in the drought and turning carcinogenic due to toxic chemical reactions is to spend millions of dollars to pour millions of black plastic balls into reservoirs to block sunlight from hitting the water.
Because we all know that hormone-disrupting chemicals never leach into liquids from hot plastic … See for yourself:
Via Boing Boing (http://boingboing.net/2015/08/11/80-million-plastic-balls-to-pr.html):
The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power is buying 80 million 4-inch black polyethylene balls to cover the surfaces of three Los Angeles reservoirs that serve 4 million residents. At a cost of 33 cents each, the hollow spheres are designed to block sunlight from turning bromide and chlorine in the water into bromate, a suspected carcinogen.

Do the math. That’s twenty-six million four hundred thousand dollars the LA Water Dept. is spending on plastic balls to fill the reservoirs with. Actually, NPR is reporting the total cost of the project at $34.5 million. Other outlets say 96 million “shade balls” have now been deployed in California to save the water from becoming carcinogenic.
But wait, others say it’s just to save water from evaporation.
Fox News (http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/08/12/black-balled-la-tries-spherical-scheme-to-block-evaporation-amid-drought/) is claiming this entire thing is just to stop the water from evaporating to help amid the drought. The article just up today on Fox makes zero mention of bromide or other toxic chemical reactions in the water. The whole thing is about praise for a creative, low-tech, cheap solution to save water. (In the comments someone wrote, “So I’m no bio scientist, but doesn’t dark, wet conditions avoiding ultra violet lights, breed bacteria?”)
News Channel 4 (http://kfor.com/2015/08/12/mesmerising-video-of-thousands-of-shade-balls-being-added-to-la-water-reservoir/) began with “On Tuesday, officials released thousands of “shade balls” to protect the water from dust, chemicals, wildlife and — most importantly — evaporation.”
“Most importantly” evaporation?
Either way, Bloomberg (http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-08-11/who-s-behind-the-96-million-shade-balls-they-just-rolled-into-l-a-s-reservoirs-) reported:
The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power has now dumped 96 million balls into local reservoirs to reduce evaporation and block sunlight from encouraging algae growth and toxic chemical reactions.

“Toxic chemical reactions.”
That’s just sad in-and-of itself that the water is in such a deplorable condition that sunlight, which is normally a cleansing agent, could transform said water — a basic resource most living things on this planet need to live — (along with the chemicals they purposefully add to it) into a deadly carcinogen.
But also:
The balls are coated with a chemical that blocks ultraviolet light and helps the spheres last as long as 25 years. Las Virgenes, north of L.A., now uses shade balls, too.

So that’s wonderful. While the measure is expected to save 300 million gallons of water a year, just how contaminated with chemicals, especially those of the hormone-disrupting/mimicking variety, will be in that water?
First of all, what is the chemical coating these plastic balls that blocks ultraviolet light comprised of exactly? Does that leach over time? Are they sure it doesn’t? No mention in the press, so I guess someone somewhere deemed it’s “safe” (a word that means less and less these days in the modern American corporatocracy and its bought-and-paid-for bureaucratic circles…).
Going back to elementary school, doesn’t black absorb heat faster than lighter colors? Wouldn’t that hasten evaporation?
BEYOND even all of that though…
Even though the FDA has declared that polyethylene is “BPA-free,” we’ve reported before (http://truthstreammedia.com/2013/11/14/do-bpa-free-plastics-still-leach-hormones-into-food/) that being deemed BPA-free does not automatically mean a plastic formulation does not leach other hormone mimickers anyway:
Studies suggest that many alternatives to BPA sold in stores may still be dangerous estrogen mimickers and/or endocrine disruptors – particularly when used with hot foods or liquids.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XckNi5ky4Q

http://www.activistpost.com/2015/08/l-a-just-dumped-millions-of-plastic-balls-into-its-drinking-water.html

[Glass]

uv is also a great killer of bacteria. I'm guessing it won't be long before those reservoirs are sporting some nice algae blooms making the water unfit for humans.

[madfranks]

uv is also a great killer of bacteria. I'm guessing it won't be long before those reservoirs are sporting some nice algae blooms making the water unfit for humans.

There's no excuse why studies and smaller scale experiments weren't undertaken before, to see how it would actually work. If something goes wrong now, expect the cost of removal and cleanup to be more than the $35 million they spent to "fix" the problem.

[Horn]

Doesn't black absorb heat?

Those additive and dyes that they use to turn all black plastic different color is becoming expensive these days, no joke.

I purchase m2 of plastic and the colored stuff is priced higher since 2008.

Probably why Apple Macintosh are so expensive, lol

[Half Sense]

The 300 million gallons of water that would have evaporated...wouldn't that become rain? So they're just perpetuating the drought.

[Ponce]

As a garage inventor I have bee thinking....who me?.......the ball should be 1.5 inches surrounded by a platform 2.5 inches all around. The whole thing would be five inches The ball would make it float and the platform would cover more area.....it should be painted aluminum to reflex the sun.......from a great mind good ideas comes to light.................my light bulb just went out hahahahahah.
AS a matter of fact, make them in the shape of a triangle so that they would fit together and leave no open hole.

V

[Cebu_4_2]

As a garage inventor I have bee thinking....who me?.......the ball should be 1.5 inches surrounded by a platform 2.5 inches all around. The whole thing would be five inches The ball would make it float and the platform would cover more area.....it should be painted aluminum to reflex the sun.......from a great mind good ideas comes to light.................my light bulb just went out hahahahahah.
AS a matter of fact, make them in the shape of a triangle so that they would fit together and leave no open hole.

V
My god the formatting... It worked fine in the lounge 2 minutes ago. Is it possible for ajust one part of the forum to be fucked?

[Glass]

There's no excuse why studies and smaller scale experiments weren't undertaken before, to see how it would actually work. If something goes wrong now, expect the cost of removal and cleanup to be more than the $35 million they spent to "fix" the problem.

at least it is good for the economy

I like ponces idea of the balls with flat bits. Formatting triangles is difficult.

now if they could meld some solar power collection into it as well........

[vacuum]

My first thought is that the spheres floating on the surface of the water dramatically increase the potential of wet surface area across the whole reservoir. As the wind blows and the spheres rotate and spin, they expose a larger wet surface area to the sun. Increasing the wet surface area seems to me would actually increase evaporation, not reduce it. But I'm sure there's some other science going on here that I don't know yet.

They said the balls contain some amount of water inside them, to weight them down. I would guess that this would prevent them from spinning. But I agree with you that it has the potential to increase evaporation like you describe, that's a valid question.

Another thing to consider is if the plastic is hydrophobic or hydrophilic. In one case it won't wet easily, in the other case, it will draw water up onto the surface.

[Neuro]

They said it works.
As evaporation increases they only need to add more balls! Eventually the reservoirs will only be filled with black balls, but the level will be higher! I can't see how they could go wrong at $1750/ball.