400,000 balls dropped in reservoir

[BladeVenom]

http://www.latimes.com/news/lo...8jun10,0,5878575.story
I thought that was an amusing video. Colored balls would have been prettier, but I guess they would have blocked less sunlight.

 

[Painman]

They've sure got some balls.

 

[Jeff7]

I wonder why black? Won't that heat the water up considerably?

 

[Robor]

Originally posted by: Jeff7
I wonder why black? Won't that heat the water up considerably?

Probably best to block sunlight.

 

[AeroEngy]

So anyone want to take any bets how long it will be until they find out that they made something worse happen by adding all the balls.

Like the plastic degrades and puts more carcinogens in the water than the bromate they were trying to prevent. Or by blocking the sunlight some new bacteria will grow that is even worse, etc.

 

[RichardE]

Originally posted by: AeroEngy
So anyone want to take any bets how long it will be until they find out that they made something worse happen by adding all the balls.

Like the plastic degrades and puts more carcinogens in the water than the bromate they were trying to prevent. Or by blocking the sunlight some new bacteria will grow that is even worse, etc.

I'm still wondering how millions of plastic balls was cheaper than a tarp...

 

[PokerGuy]

Originally posted by: AeroEngy
So anyone want to take any bets how long it will be until they find out that they made something worse happen by adding all the balls.

Like the plastic degrades and puts more carcinogens in the water than the bromate they were trying to prevent. Or by blocking the sunlight some new bacteria will grow that is even worse, etc.

That's exactly what I was thinking, unintended consequences FTL. It always seems to go that way, they do something like this with the best of intentions, then something unexpected happens and you have bigger problems than what you started with.

The next news story will be something like "new deadly microbe found in water reservoir, scientists trying to figure out how to solve the problem".

 

[BassBomb]

Originally posted by: Jeff7
I wonder why black? Won't that heat the water up considerably?

Bigger

 

[feralkid]

Originally posted by: BassBomb

Originally posted by: Jeff7
I wonder why black? Won't that heat the water up considerably?

Bigger

Damn!

 

[yuppiejr]

I thought for a second this thread was about some bukakke club attempt at a world record... nevermind.

 

[mxyzptlk]

Originally posted by: RichardE

Originally posted by: AeroEngy
So anyone want to take any bets how long it will be until they find out that they made something worse happen by adding all the balls.

Like the plastic degrades and puts more carcinogens in the water than the bromate they were trying to prevent. Or by blocking the sunlight some new bacteria will grow that is even worse, etc.

I'm still wondering how millions of plastic balls was cheaper than a tarp...

I guess it would it be difficult to construct and deploy such a large and unevenly shaped tarp. Then maintenance becomes a problem because what do you do if a tear develops somewhere or if it comes loose at some corner and the wind blows the whole thing away... The balls will disperse themselves to evenly cover the entire area with no effort at all, and they seem to require no maintenance either... Some balls get stolen/lost/damaged? just dump in another few bags full!

 

[MadRat]

You might heat up the top layer of water but because it is less dense than cooler water it will stay high. I doubt it affects the overall thermocline in the reservoir much.

 

[Capt Caveman]

Pretty cool

 

[RU482]

so is that reservoir ~40 yrs old

 

[SSSnail]

That's stupid, why can't they just plant lotus?

 

[Butterbean]

That reminded me of the Bravia commercial:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oP5J4W5GQ3w

 

[Drift3r]

Originally posted by: RichardE

Originally posted by: AeroEngy
So anyone want to take any bets how long it will be until they find out that they made something worse happen by adding all the balls.

Like the plastic degrades and puts more carcinogens in the water than the bromate they were trying to prevent. Or by blocking the sunlight some new bacteria will grow that is even worse, etc.

I'm still wondering how millions of plastic balls was cheaper than a tarp...

According to the article the OP linked a study conducted on measures to cover up the reservoir concluded that a tarp would cost way to much to deploy and maintain. Apparently these types of balls are used near airports to cover up areas such as ponds, lakes, wetlands etc... to prevent birds from landing near the air strips and potentially causing issues for landing aircraft.