400,000 Black Balls Save L.A. Reservoir From Carcinogen
Wed, Jun 11, 2008
*Update - all images from the awesome Dakota Smith at Curbed. More photos There*
image (c) Dakota Smith
The Department of Water and Power workers in Los Angeles, as well as local officials and community activists opened a white tub from where they poured 400,000 black colored balls into the water. So, the question is: was this an artwork, some kind of statement or attempt to pollute the water?
image (c) Dakota Smith
The answer on all fronts is no – absolutely and categorically no. In fact, it is an action intended to protect the quality of L.A. drinking water and preventing it from becoming a health hazard. The water needs to be protected and in the shade because of its composition of bromate and chlorine – if exposed to large amounts of sunlight, it could cause a chemical reaction and in high levels can cause cancer.
Last year, abnormally high levels of bromide were signaled, but specialists claimed that danger levels were low because people had to drink the water for a lifetime - even so, the chances of contracting cancer were minimal.
image (c) Dakota Smith
After the discovery of bromate, officials began to search for a method to shade the Ivanhoe and Elysian Reservoirs, but all suggested options would need time and a helluva lot of money. Instead, local government followed the advice of a DWP biologist who came with the idea to use these black plastic balls you see in the pictures.
The reservoirs will be covered by 3 million balls for roughly 4 years.
Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Images: 1, 2, 3
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June 11th, 2008 at 8:43 pm
Anybody else picture 200,000 black dudes teabagging the reservoire?
June 11th, 2008 at 9:03 pm
And why do they think that no chemicals will leach out of these *plastic* balls?
June 11th, 2008 at 9:08 pm
That’s exactly what I pictured.
June 11th, 2008 at 9:09 pm
Nice. Glad your mom lets you use the computer once a week to check e-mail, and ends up with this as a result. Go back to the basement.
June 11th, 2008 at 9:10 pm
when asked if this would work they replied: outlook uncertain ask again later.
June 11th, 2008 at 9:13 pm
That is by far the best artistic representation I have ever seen of the floating island of plastic waste the size of Texas that is currently growing in the Pacific Ocean. More plastic please! We are all doomed.
June 11th, 2008 at 9:15 pm
Turns out commies aren’t the only things getting blackballed in LA
June 11th, 2008 at 9:31 pm
Okay, but is that the kind of plastic that leaches toxins into water? What is it’s recycle number? It figures, just when I stop using plastic water bottles, you guys put plastic in at the source….thanks
June 11th, 2008 at 9:35 pm
Gee, would it not make more since to use white balls instead of black ones. Black will absorb the sun’s heat, thus possibly making the water hotter?
June 11th, 2008 at 9:39 pm
Oh yeah and just a thought…Doesn’t black attract heat? making the water hotter?
June 11th, 2008 at 9:39 pm
No.
June 11th, 2008 at 9:42 pm
MOD PARENT UP!
June 11th, 2008 at 9:44 pm
Well, I am now.
June 11th, 2008 at 9:46 pm
No, I think you were the only one. And I think you have some homoerotic issues to work through
June 11th, 2008 at 9:48 pm
Relax, everything will be fine until the black balls are discovered to have been manufactured in China using carcinogenic materials or lead paint.
Not that anyone would notice any difference from the people in California.
June 11th, 2008 at 9:59 pm
4 YEARS??
I have a feeling this is a bad idea.
Is there any aquatic life there?
June 11th, 2008 at 10:02 pm
Can’t wait to see what happens when 400,000 plastic balls start changing their chemical make up after exposure to hot sunlight. They might be making the situation worse as the oils from the plastic get into the water.
June 11th, 2008 at 10:07 pm
Wont the chemicals from the plastic when exposed to the sunlight leech into the water…..?
June 11th, 2008 at 10:22 pm
This is innovative and a good step. Uh, if the intent is to keep the water cooler would it not be better to have the balls in a light color that reflects heat rather than black which absorbs it and transfers it to the water? Derned six grade science class just won’t go away.–
June 11th, 2008 at 10:38 pm
So the bisphenol a or phthalates or other potential carcinogens leaching out of the plastic balls are somehow better for us? What a ridiculous boondoggle.
June 11th, 2008 at 10:52 pm
How rather odd I stumble here considering my bromate reference a mere 4 hours ago. I wonder if blue balls are good for anything?
June 11th, 2008 at 10:58 pm
Wait till the “discover” all the carcinogens that leach into the water from the black balls! duh! muwahahaha…
June 11th, 2008 at 11:07 pm
So thats where my magic 8 ball disappeared to.
June 11th, 2008 at 11:17 pm
Great, now people will have pthalate or PCB leaching to contend with.
June 11th, 2008 at 11:26 pm
In related news, scientists discover that the plastic black balls made in China are more likely to cause serious health problems than bromide.
June 11th, 2008 at 11:27 pm
Probably like 203,000. It’s a dangerous world, man.
June 11th, 2008 at 11:31 pm
No. No teabag.
But WHO added the chlorine? It is an unstable chemical in water and will evaporate in a few days. As to the bromide, it too, had to be added.
Usually, those chemicals signify unsafe hazzards in the water. Someone is trying to “cover up” a problem…
Criptosporoza, or worse.
CHEERS EVERYONE!
June 11th, 2008 at 11:37 pm
I wonder if they will heat up the water and cause it to evaporate quicker? Remember, black absorbs sunlight and heats up pretty good. Also, in the movie, “The Abyss”, they did kinda the same thing, only they used smaller balls the size of bb’s or so. That way, they would have no light underwater where they were filming, and, if there were an emergency, they could get out of the water quicker than if they used a tarp over the water. Oh! They were filming in an uncompleated and abandoned nuclear power plant…
June 11th, 2008 at 11:52 pm
FILTHY!!
June 12th, 2008 at 12:39 am
No, that’s stupid.
June 12th, 2008 at 1:12 am
That…unfortunatly…is.exactly what I thought of after reading that headline. Do they do it intentionaly or is it that they are too lazy to proofread what they have written? Either way its hilarious
June 12th, 2008 at 1:15 am
nope
June 12th, 2008 at 1:15 am
weird as hell yes but a pretty ingenious idea if you ask me….which you didn’t
June 12th, 2008 at 1:54 am
Only in California. Bromate? Chlorine? These are not found in rain water, or runoff. How the heck did the chemicals get into the water, anyway? I’ll bet some enviromental wacko group forced the addition of free chlorine to the water in order to find a solution for a problem they created themselves.
What kind of cancer problems do you get from plastic balls that break down under UV exposure? Can you spell S-T-O-O-P-I-D?
June 12th, 2008 at 2:03 am
No, because testicles look more like (nut-) sacks than balls.
June 12th, 2008 at 2:36 am
Anything going to leach out of the plastic balls and contaminate the water? After 4 years? In the sun?
June 12th, 2008 at 2:40 am
Huh, I wonder what the balls are made from… and what the plastic contains. Probably more carcinogens ?
June 12th, 2008 at 2:42 am
Leaching and contamination, eh? Poly this and that from plastics? Coming soon, maybe in four years, The Creature from the Black Lagoon.
June 12th, 2008 at 3:21 am
It occurs to me that the leaching of 400,000 plastic balls from sun bleaching might have an injurious effect on the quality of the water…especially after 4 years. Then again maybe it’s just me.
June 12th, 2008 at 3:47 am
a+
June 12th, 2008 at 4:09 am
mmm… tea…
June 12th, 2008 at 5:01 am
I love you
June 12th, 2008 at 7:13 am
That’s nice. Why did they use black though, won’t they get hot and melt abit and release plastic into the water?
women in LA have too many rights.
women’s rights should be removed.
June 12th, 2008 at 9:29 am
Great! Instead of the carcinogen bromide, instead they get to choke on carcinogens from the plastic balls! Isn’t progress wonderful?
June 12th, 2008 at 1:25 pm
Reminds me of the world of The Matrix where they released black nano-particles into the atmosphere to block off sunlight for the Machines…
June 12th, 2008 at 2:29 pm
Same faulted logic behind automobile-tire reefs in Florida.
June 12th, 2008 at 2:32 pm
It’s probably UV light that causes the reaction and not heat. So really the color of the balls shouldn’t matter as long as it is efficient at blocking UV light. Maybe black does that best.
June 12th, 2008 at 3:09 pm
Uh…. Might as well cover the entire surface with crude… But that would cost 160$ a barrell by the time they’re done… And people would steal the water then… I wonder if there’s any crude in those black balls? They hit the Lotto on that solution!
June 12th, 2008 at 3:54 pm
Some interesting questions:
1. yes, the plastic will probably leach into the water and is bad for the environment, but so are all the radio/satellite/tv waves, smoking, and bunches of other stuff.
2. NO I did not think of a sexual picture when I read the headlines.
3. Yes, they add chlorine to all drinking water provided by the cities, they also add flouride. Neither is good for you, but is condisered a “neccisity” because of bacteria, etc.
Hope this helps.
Oh, and they used black to cause the water to be shaded, white would have let some sunlight through, colours could have caused something else funky with the water.
June 12th, 2008 at 4:22 pm
Three million black plastic balls, 10 cm diameter each, loaded with antioxidants, UV absorbers, and ozone-protectants so they don’t go to mulch in full California sunlight. Black heats in sunlight speeding things along. Sphere total area is (3×10^6)4(pi)(5 cm)^2 or 10^9 cm^2 in round numbers. 100,000 m^2 of hot plastic will be leaching additives into reservoir drinking water. Given California wildfires… do they contain cryptoestrogenic and carcinogenic fire retardants, too?
June 12th, 2008 at 4:32 pm
Ya but over 4 years, a 1/4 trillion gallons of water will have passed by. The concentrations will be much lower then, say a pint of water stored in a bottle. 200,000 Water bottles would only be 25,000 gallons.
Bromine needs shielding from UV light
June 13th, 2008 at 6:31 am
Do you by any chance attend my local high school?
June 13th, 2008 at 4:22 pm
well, it certainly is creative… I dont think I could have come up with something like that sober.
I wonder if this is going to become a tourist attraction…