Thursday, August 20, 2015

L.A.'s Disastrous Black Balls

By Douglas V. Gibbs

Los Angeles, in an attempt to save the Southern California City $250 million of tax-payer money due to evaporating water during the drought, dumped 96 million “shade balls” into a major reservoir. It sounded like a good idea at the time, but as the experts dig into the idea, it turns out the black balling of Los Angeles reservoirs is going to be an unmitigated disaster.

The dumping of $34.5 million worth of tiny, black plastic balls into the city's 175-acre Van Norman Complex reservoir in the Sylmar section, according to critics, have the makings of a potential disaster. Experts say the best colors for the tiny plastic balls would be chrome, or white. The worst? The color of black, which has zero reflectivity, of which Los Angeles chose.

"Black spheres resting in the hot sun will form a thermal blanket speeding evaporation as well as providing a huge amount of new surface area for the hot water to breed bacteria," said Matt MacLeod, founder of the California biotech firm Modern Moon Farms. "Disaster. It’s going to be a bacterial nightmare."

The manufacturer of the black balls say the balls are safe because other colors would require dyes, which may bleed into the water supply.

-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary

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