Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Black Balls

BALLS!
bah

Department of Water and Power workers are emptying out bales of plastic balls in the Ivanhoe reservoir in Los Angeles on Monday, June 9, 2008. Department of Water and Power released about 400,000 black plastic 4-inch balls as the first installment of approximately 3 million to form a floating cover over 7 acres of the reservoir to protect the water from sunlight. When sunlight mixes with the bromide and chlorine in Ivanhoe's water, the carcinogen bromate can form.
This cracks me up.  Are they trying to stop evaporation because of the severe water shortage?  Noooooo.  They're worried that the sun might cause a chemical reaction with other of their brilliancies.  And how was clearance granted for this environmental outrage?  How soon before a bird swallows a black ball and chokes to death?  The humanity! In that event, expect U.S. CircuitJudge Oliver Wanger, who is largely responsible for the water shortage anyway,  to come to the rescue, screaming "get your balls out of my water!"


BTW, for six years I've been checking who appointed judges who make idiotic-to-obscene rulings from the federal bemch.  This is only the second time that  a president other than Carter or Clinton was responsible (Bush 41).

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Why are they using black balls? Won't black balls retain heat more than white balls? Won't that speed up evaporation? And what happens when the UV light from the sun causes the plastic to deteriorate? Isn't that going to release dyes and plastics components into the water supply? Are they going to recycle the plastic balls?

You're welcome. Just let me know if you need for me to cause any more problems.

XOXO

Anonymous said...

Looks like fun-- kind of like a goth McDonald's Playland.

Picture of kids playing stickball with black plastic balls coming soon.

rockville

Anonymous said...

Wouldn't white balls reflect the light? Dark colors will just heat the water and cause it to evaporate faster.

Anonymous said...

I repeated Chuck's statement, sorry about that. I didn't see it, I guess I picked a bad day to stop smoking crack.

OregonGuy said...

Uh...is there a chemist in the house?

Couldn't we simply adjust the pH and handle the problem?

Is chemistry too hard? I'ts got all those ions and stuff.

.

Anonymous said...

I'd like to see pics of kids with .22s, in the approved prone position, putting holes in teh balls. And Rodg, sir, can't we be more careful with the word verification? This one is dangerously close to the word that'll summon Satan from his lair.

Anonymous said...

Evaporation will decrease, greatly, black or not. The heat absorbed by the balls then released to the water will be almost unmeasurable (guessing < 0.5 F). The black vs. white issue here does intrigue me: I'm guessing that the black is more inert. Recall that water dissolves almost everything; however plastic is more insoluble than even stainless steel. This one is probably polyethylene, commonly used in containers. I'm guessing that the black dyes used in this plastic leeches less than other colors.

A physical solution to a chemical problem is always preferable: it's cheaper, and safer. You don't want to be adding chemicals you'll later have to filter out.

Not even an ostrich will be swallowing a 4-inch ball.

This is a temporary fix: Few reservoirs are still open air. They plan on replacing this in five years with an enclosed one. The bromate found was in very low quantity, but these days people can't tell the difference between ppm and ppb and any amount of carcinogen must be bad. They've already emptied two reservoirs, and LA isn't overrunning with fresh water.

I am going to humbly suggest that there's good science here, a compromise between keeping the reservoir going, slowing the UV/Cl/Br reaction, and probably balming people's fears, at an affordable price.

LifeTrek said...

This could cause real, immediate health problems -- not possible future cancers. As already stated the plastic will break down and chemically sensitive people will have serious reactions (and some who don't know they are sensitive will have reactions).

Someone is going to get sued over this one.

I have said repeatedly that we really don't know what we are doing with crap like this. Our vaunted solutions cause damage we never considered.
David

Timbeaux said...

They're using black because it will block the sunlight better, see the part about trying to limit a light-triggered reaction. They may be morons, but they're not stupid.

Anonymous said...

Who gives a shit really? This water is going to the Hollywood types, as if they'll notice anything. May do 'em some good. They got black balls on the mind lately anyways.

Desert Cat said...

The black polyethylene is probably the UV stabilized kind, so the balls don't break down in the sunlight.

Anonymous said...

Chuck Martel: black balls are usually bigger, thus their use. Wait for some manby-pamby to scream about the carcinogens leaching from the plastic into the water. 3 2 1 ....

Anonymous said...

...and did they even THINK about how much oil and toxic substances were used to produce all those plastic balls?????????

No.......

Anonymous said...

Well then ...

Di-Hydrogen Monoxide is rather dangerous. They should just ban it, and fill in the reservoir with desert soil and native plants.

And anyone smuggling Di_Hydrogen Monoxide into SoCal should be put in prison.

It's a small price to pay for safety.

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