12 August 2015

Ballsy Move

I have to caveat.

"Los Angeles′ brilliant move: 96 million balls will cover reservoir and save $300 million | News | DW.COM | 12.08.2015"
How brilliant, no seriously, I'm asking.

"The plastic water-filled balls discharged into the city's reservoir will result in saving precious water from evaporation."
...but not all of the water because, 1, the balls aren't hexagonal and so there is space between each sphere, 2, some of the photonic-induced evaporation will be prevented, and still, not perfectly sealed.


"They will also protect against dust, rain, birds and even chemical changes caused by the sun." 
Okay, is this a joke? Dust is, at its best, microscopic, easily able to land between them, and if they roll, the dust goes into the water. Rain will not be slowed, birds can land on a layer of plastic, defecating and contaminating the water, because they're not magical spheres, and plastic is a poor conductor of heat, but will trap heat in the water, effecting chemical changes. Seriously, is this a joke?

"The city of Los Angeles has completed the pouring of 96 million "Shade Balls" into the Silver Lake reservoir in the city, a move which should prevent water from evaporate and protect the reservoir from dust, rain, birds and chemical changes." 
Aren't all balls "shade balls" really?  Repeating it doesn't make it true, whoever wrote this.

"The gigantic ball pit is actually part of a $34.5-million (about 31-million-euro) plan to protect the city's water supply in the midst of the devastating California drought." 
Did you ever see that movie "Idiocracy" where the premise involves society's ability to point and say something and all the idiots agree without thinking?  The movie mocks Fox News and, at the time, everyone pointed and laughed at them and didn't see the irony, so here we are. Also, amidst, not in-the-midst. Also, nobody ever spends that much on my balls.

"Los Angeles is the first city in the United States to use the water-filled 10cm-in-diameter (4 inch) black plastic balls. They are hollow, polyethylene orbs, coated with a chemical that blocks ultraviolet light and helps the spheres last as long as 25 years." 
Water-filled, so they trap bacteria with the only thing it needs to survive, and then put these into the reservoir. Well, there's also the chance that these plastic balls aren't BPE-free and will begin contaminating the water immediately. Also, it literally says "coated with a chemical" so there goes the no-chemical-changes policy, things dissolve faster in water than air, it's called decomposition. Blocking ultraviolet (sub-spectrum) light, except for between the spheres, and if they roll the water on top. Also, in 25 years when they dissolve, the reservoir becomes a toxic sludge pool environmental blight.


" 'This is a blend of how engineering meets common sense. We saved a lot of money and did all the right things,' said the head of the municipal water department, Marcie Edwards."
I need a common-sense vaccination. I hate when people put municipal and department in the same sentence.  Saving resources (to use them) is the only right thing. Has anyone considered what will happen if the spheres begin clogging the delivery system?

"Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti together with employees of the municipal water department in Los Angeles released the final 20,000 balls in the project on Monday."
Are tents/tarps hard to find?

" 'The balls will conserve 300 million gallons of water that would otherwise evaporate every year,' Garcetti said. 'While it's meeting the minimum standards, we want to go beyond that and have the healthiest water so we've been spreading these balls everywhere.' "
Just the reservoir please.

"According to him, the city has already reduced its water use by 13 percent. The cost of the black balls, with a life expectancy of about 10 years, totaled $35 million, while estimates predict savings of up to $300 million."
Wait, now in only ten years, the spheres begin to contaminate the water, will cleaning the water cost more than the spheres? It's California, so the answer is yes. But $300M saving on what; consumer utilities bills?

Desalination plants that run on nuclear power work. Build those. More than half of agricultural water is directed to the ocean to save a minnow. I will send you new fucking minnows when the drought is over. Don't waste river water. Stop playing with your balls.