LA is dumping millions of plastic balls into its reservoir to tackle the drought
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Re: LA is dumping millions of plastic balls into its reservoir to tackle the drought
#52I think the story sounds a bit ironic: So you are essentially dumping objects made out of chemicals, you had to drill wholes in the ocean ground to get, into a lake, because you found out that the chemicals you dumped into it earlier kill you when the sun shines on them. You also think that this might help you with the water shortage caused by unsustainable use of resources. To me this all sounds like we arrived at a…
Unless you have a better idea, I don't see how the criticism is useful.
Re: LA is dumping millions of plastic balls into its reservoir to tackle the drought
#53This chlorine everywhere in the US astonishes me. When visiting I'm not able to drink (non bottled) Coke b/c of the bad and intense chlorine taste.
Re: LA is dumping millions of plastic balls into its reservoir to tackle the drought
#54What I don't understand is that they dumped black balls in the reservoir. If you want to keep the water cool to lessen evaporation wouldn't it make sense to use white or reflecting balls so the water stays slightly cooler? I would be glad to know why black balls are chosen.
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Re: LA is dumping millions of plastic balls into its reservoir to tackle the drought
#55They're not dumping plastic balls in order to tackle the drought, they're being dumped because the EPA mandated that all reservoirs be covered. Direct sunlight will cause bromide and chlorine in the water to mix into bromate, a known carcinogen, and the EPA wants to prevent buildup of this compound in the drinking water supply. Covering the reservoir with a tarp is too expensive (costing over $300 million) and plasti…
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Re: LA is dumping millions of plastic balls into its reservoir to tackle the drought
#56Earlier quoted context omitted.
Just a guess, but maybe chlorine needs a good amount of time to be effective, and the transit time from reservoir to tap might not be enough
Why not use ozone to teat the water. It's a better solution that chlorine, even more effective to kill bacteria.
Why not, indeed...
Bromates are formed many different ways in municipal drinking water. The most common is the reaction of ozone and bromide.
Re: LA is dumping millions of plastic balls into its reservoir to tackle the drought
#57I think the story sounds a bit ironic: So you are essentially dumping objects made out of chemicals, you had to drill wholes in the ocean ground to get, into a lake, because you found out that the chemicals you dumped into it earlier kill you when the sun shines on them. You also think that this might help you with the water shortage caused by unsustainable use of resources. To me this all sounds like we arrived at a…
But we protected ourselves from diseases with the chlorine. That's a massive win. Then we discovered there's a new risk of disease with the bromate, so we protect ourselves from that too. Isn't this basically how most technology develops? We keep getting better and better off because of it.
Re: LA is dumping millions of plastic balls into its reservoir to tackle the drought
#58They're not dumping plastic balls in order to tackle the drought, they're being dumped because the EPA mandated that all reservoirs be covered. Direct sunlight will cause bromide and chlorine in the water to mix into bromate, a known carcinogen, and the EPA wants to prevent buildup of this compound in the drinking water supply. Covering the reservoir with a tarp is too expensive (costing over $300 million) and plasti…
Went to the second link, and got the real story. It was an isolated, rare problem. The EPA mandate makes sense. Only these three lakes had high levels of bromate in 2007? I was picturing my beloved lakes filled with plastic.
"reservoirs exposed to sunlight are now rare. The area's reservoirs -- Silver Lake, Ivanhoe and Elysian -- first registered elevated levels of bromate between June and October 2007.
But state health officials said the dangers were minimal because bromate poses a small cancer risk only after consumed daily over a lifetime."
Re: LA is dumping millions of plastic balls into its reservoir to tackle the drought
#59Earlier quoted context omitted.
doesn't the plastic + sunlight + heat combination release dangerous chemicals in the water? also, why are they black, doesn't that attract more heat?
That's what I thought, too. Shiny silver balls would reflect even more light, and look super-cool!
Actually white balls probably would be better. What you normally reach with specular reflection is around 80% reflectivity. With diffuse reflection (white colour) you can get into the 99.x% range much more easily.
Re: LA is dumping millions of plastic balls into its reservoir to tackle the drought
#60I think the story sounds a bit ironic: So you are essentially dumping objects made out of chemicals, you had to drill wholes in the ocean ground to get, into a lake, because you found out that the chemicals you dumped into it earlier kill you when the sun shines on them. You also think that this might help you with the water shortage caused by unsustainable use of resources. To me this all sounds like we arrived at a…
But we protected ourselves from diseases with the chlorine. That's a massive win. Then we discovered there's a new risk of disease with the bromate, so we protect ourselves from that too. Isn't this basically how most technology develops? We keep getting better and better off because of it.
There are countries that don't use chlorine: Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Sweden, ... and they're regularly touted as having the best tap water quality in the world.