Ivanhoe Reservoir Covered With 400,000 Black Polyethylene Balls

The Department of Water Protection in Los Angeles noticed high levels of bromated in 2007, a carcinogen that forms when bromide and chlorine react with sunlight. Los Angeles’s Ivanhoe Reservoir Bromide is naturally present in groundwater and chlorine is used to kill bacteria, but sunlight is the final ingredient in the potentially damaging mix. More than a century old facility serves over 600,000 customer’s downtown and in South Los Angeles. 

Therefore, the Department of Water Protection realizes the upcoming problem, they immediately started construction of a new underground reservoir in Griffith Park, but though the new facility was being built they had to resolve the problems by a way to keep the sunlight out of the water. The possibility of tarps and metal coverings were explored but they were either too costly or will take too long time to install. Hence, after a deep though, their one of the DWP's biologists, Brian White, recommended "bird balls" frequently used by airports to avoid birds from congregating in wet areas alongside runways. 

The bird balls are made of polyethylene and price only 40 cents apiece. The bird balls coating hold carbon and black is the only color strong as much as necessary to deflect ultraviolet rays. Therefore, 400,000 balls were put into the reservoir on June 2008, where they will hang about for the next 4 to 5 years until the new underground reservoir is finished.