By Josh Mur, Anti Media, August 14, 2015

(ANTIMEDIA) Los Angeles, CA — It’s no secret that weather patterns in recent years have been cruel to California’s water supply. In fact, the last four years have been host to one of the worst (possibly the worst) droughts since 1895. With record high temperatures and record low levels of water in the reservoirs, it almost goes without saying that California must take initiatives to conserve water.

Residents of Los Angeles who have seen the Ivanhoe Reservoir in the past 7 years may have noticed that the 96-acre body of water looks noticeably odd. Despite the almost sinister appearance of the large body of water, it is actually a tool being used to combat the ongoing drought. The black surface on the water is not the water itself or any sort of chemical spill, but in fact, 400,000 4-inch, high-density polyethylene balls—and Los Angeles just added 96 million of them into the Los Angeles Reservoir. But the question still remains: what do they do?

These “shade balls,” as they’re called, are used for multiple purposes. First, they are coated with a chemical used to block UV rays from the reservoir to prevent evaporation. Officials predict that an estimated 300 million gallons of water will be saved annually in the Los Angeles Reservoir. Additionally, protecting the reservoirs from sunlight also prevents the formation of algae and bromate, a carcinogen that grows when bromide and chlorine are exposed to sunlight. In an interview with KABC, Mayor Eric Garcetti states:

“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.”

On top of all that, the project saved the city over $250 million. The alternate option to save water by dividing the reservoir itself would have cost the city roughly $300 million. The “shade balls” were significantly cheaper, with a price tag of $34.5 million.

Two companies manufactured the polyethylene shade balls—XavierC from Glendora, CA and Artisan Screen Process of Azuza, CA.  High-density polyethylene is also commonly used for milk jugs and shampoo bottles and is generally considered safe as it is not known to excrete any chemicals into food or water. In a statement issued on Monday, Los Angeles Mayor Garcetti said:

“In the midst of California’s historic drought, it takes bold ingenuity to maximize my gals for water conservation. This effort by LADWP is emblematic of the kind of creative thinking we need to meet those challenges.”

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This article (Los Angeles’ Plan to Save Water and 250 Million Dollars During the Drought) is free and open source. You have permission to republish this article under a Creative Commons license with attribution to Josh Mur and theAntiMedia.org. Anti-Media Radio airs weeknights at 11pm Eastern/8pm Pacific. Image credit: LADWP. If you spot a typo, email edits@theantimedia.org. 

Josh Mur joined Anti-Media as an independent journalist in January of 2015. His topics of interest include culture, alternative medicine, and government corruption. He currently resides in Sacramento, California, where he was born and raised. Learn more about Mur here!