We are not making this up: Ivanhoe Reservoir in Silver Lake covered in little black plastic balls *

Can you hear the screaming from where you are? That's Silver Lake residents with a view of the water reacting as DWP workers roll millions of little plastic balls down the banks and into the reservoir, an unconventional way to cover up the water to keep more cancer-linked bromate from forming.

The presence of bromate was the whole reason the Silver Lake reservoir was drained earlier this year.

A full story about the balls and the bromate and the future of the man-made lakes from our own hard-working Francisco Vara-Orta is on the way. In the meantime, feel free to stare at these pix and marvel at the strange world in which we live.

Anyone else having Chuck E. Cheese/Ikea flashbacks?

--Veronique de Turenne

Photos: Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times

*A previous version of this post did not include the words "Ivanhoe Reservoir".

Comments

[Red]

And what kinds of harmful chemicals are residing in all of those PLASTIC balls that will LEACH into the drinking water when the SUN shines on them and makes them HOT???? Idiots.

[Natalie]

It takes some real balls to do something like fight cancer.

[crystal flower]

Wouldn't the black balls just make the water warmer and more hospitable to other growing junk (weeds, algae etc)?

[gabriel]

From Wikipedia:

"Bromate is also formed in electrochemical processes, such as formation of hypochlorite ion used in municipal water processes, when bromide ion is present. Additionally bromate ion is produced when chlorine dioxide is used in water, the bromide ion is present, and the water is exposed to sunlight.

This reaction occurs in water systems where bromide is dissolved in water and ozone is used to disinfect the water, especially under high pressures. This reaction is undesirable because bromate is a suspected carcinogen."

Did you catch the part about how it's also a byproduct of the municipal water processes???

My experience has led me to believe that American engineers tend to 'patch' things when problems arise, whereas Europeans will re-think and re-design an entire system to solve a problem. I'm disappointed that we are not targeting the bromate problem at the source, but instead adding a patch... in this case, millions of round black ones.

[dana]

wait - wasn't the ivanhoe reservoir going to be filled with the balls? it's right next to the silver lake reservoir but it's not silver lake! and it's much, much smaller in size. bad reporting or change in dwp plans?

[gavinC]

This is doing chemistry, altering solution, in a beaker the size of a lake. Really scaling up.

[Super90]

I'm with Red. What type of plastic are they using? What possible chemicals could leach out of the balls when the sun heats them up? Any BPA? And why didn't they use white or silver balls? And are they aware that balls won't do the job of blocking all the sunlight. So what they're shooting for is merely less cancer-causing bromate? All in all, this seem pretty stupid.

[Lamb Cannon]

I WANT THIS JOB!

[Champo]

I wonder how much a black ball would sell for on online auction?

[Ed]

Next thing you know, James Cameron will start filming a movie at the bottom of the reservoir.

[Wisecat Willis]

the balls shoulda been SILVER

[BALLS TO THE WALLS]

Those balls are big, black and hot!

[Mr. Bill]

This is going to provide months of entertainment. I can see the birds getting confused and maybe hurt, trying to land on these things. Then the global warming issues as mentioned above will find a devoted audience of malcontents, then, as they accumulate algae, the stink will set it, then, the leaching of plasticizers,(again, as mentioned above), then somebody is going to discover that the whole thing originated when some DWP official's husband, who owns a toy store, discovered the Chinese factory that makes toy plastic balls had sent him a boatload in the wrong color, so now what? Milo Minderbinder to the rescue!

O boy!

[Basket Balls]

Who's going to clean them dirty balls???

[Harry N. Utbag]

Don't orphan the balls!

[Eric Walker]

If these were put in the ocean, we'd have a massive case of salty balls.

[Eliza]

Did they run out of blue balls? :)

[jerry]

amazing how many ignorant posts go up on here before the full story comes out. does everyone think that dwp really didn't think this through, that they didn't test this solution first, that they didn't research the environmental impact beforehand? if they hadn't the EPA would be all over them. furthermore, the city doesn't just toss it's funding monies around to anyone with a hair-brained idea. it is a little unnerving that the article says a full story is on the way, why not wait until that story is ready to say anything at all? that would eliminate all this un-informed speculation and inappropriate gut reactions. but at the same time, it's an interesting story with some great pictures so I can't blame them for putting it up, some of you readers just need to chill with your comments.

[jerry]

amazing how many ignorant posts go up on here before the full story comes out. does everyone think that dwp really didn't think this through, that they didn't test this solution first, that they didn't research the environmental impact beforehand? if they hadn't the EPA would be all over them. furthermore, the city doesn't just toss it's funding monies around to anyone with a hair-brained idea. it is a little unnerving that the article says a full story is on the way, why not wait until that story is ready to say anything at all? that would eliminate all this un-informed speculation and inappropriate gut reactions. but at the same time, it's an interesting story with some great pictures so I can't blame them for putting it up, some of you readers just need to chill with your comments.

[Dave9]

Does anyone have any actual facts about the type of plastics these balls are made of and whether they will actually leach chemicals? If not, then quit with the ignorant knee-jerk reactionism, it makes environmental concern look bad.

[Doug W]

10-1 the 'balls' are all stolen in less than a week!!

[FlyN]

The black balls are probably made out of lead paint made from China! That what happens when you low-bid! haha!

[Been there Done that]

This is not going to go well. I know they want black to keep the sun from reacting with bromines, but now they have created a top notch solar collector with a great heat sink under it (the water) and are going to see what happens when skyrocketing water temps deplete the oxygen. It's not going to be pretty.

[Inbred Jed]

Is this a hoax? Look at the picture of the DWP workers pouring the balls out of the bag. The balls near the bag have shadows on their left sides. The balls near the water have shadows on their right. Photoshop broom job?

[mr. bill]

>> does everyone think that dwp really didn't think this through,

Remember that high school they tried to build on top of a toxic waste dump? How much did we spend on that, 230 million or so? My goodness, I'm amazed at how some people STILL have so much faith in governement.

[S. Britchky]

Great, insightful-type comments from very knowledgeable technical people, many of whom, to state the obvious, can spell the word "enganeer."

[Ryan]

Do you know why every few years California has a fiscal crisis? It's because of this kind of public works.

[Mr. Bill]

Oh, I get it now. There's a bunch of DWP enganeers writing comments here....

Hehehe

[timithie]

i heard an NPR report on this on saturday, and this person reported that the balls are made of the same plastic as plastic milk jugs and do not pose any danger of leeching chemicals into the water... also, they are investigating other possible color options to make the reservoir into a sort of public art, basically making the best of a crappy situation.

i'll take balls over cancer any day.

[yougottabekidding]

I'm with gabriel: this would never happen in Europe! In Europe the sun shines every day, and there's never any crime, and no european country has ever done anything bad like put black plastic balls in lake!! And why did AMERICAN engineers dump all the BLACK plactic balls in the lake? I'll bet they gave the white balls the GOOD JOB!

[red]

The comments on this board are hysterical! I am enjoying them very much. A whole lot more fun than the "Grumbling Clinton Supporters" comments page!

[Nate Weaver]

I love how there's a peanut gallery of commenters here assuming the people put in charge of this did not think of this or that. All issues that would come to mind in literally 15 seconds of consideration...there's the immediate assumption that it wasn't covered.

It's an insult to the folks that spend their entire careers in planning, development, and conservation issues.

You're not necessarily the smartest person in the room here (Red, Super90, etc) so stop point fingers and making assumptions.

[Donna Barstow]

I’ve been writing about these balls for 3 months now, in my blog, and I expect the upcoming LA Times article will include some of the research I've done on this!

No, Jerry, LADWP didn’t think this through. They didn’t hire any outside experts or chemists. They made up their own little beakers of water and lowered them up in down in water, and that’s their “chemistry.” The EPA has nothing to do with this.

The HDPE plastic that the balls are made of is indeed suspect, and every day last week I called the one company in the US that makes the balls, to find out what grade of plastic they are using; bird balls in the past have only been used in toxic waste or in ponds near airports, to eliminate birds, so they haven’t been high-grade - ie, drinkable- plastic. (and of course as a “side effect” they will eliminate birds in Ivanhoe, too, which is part of a migration flyway.) However, this company, ECC, has never once picked up the phone, or called me back, so pardon my suspicion...

HDPE comes only from 2 places, the big oil companies: Exxon and Chevron. Both companies told me that the grade of plastic is very important, and literally changes as it’s being manufactured, and SHOULD be evaluated again after it's formed. Wonder if LADWP will do this...Who wants to bet on this?

And as a commenter mentioned above, the big joke on LA is that Silver Lake Reservoir shares water with Ivanhoe, with only a wall separating them, but Silver Lake will not have birdballs, just the normal treated water, so you’ll never know which water you’re getting! (Ivanhoe will leach the plastic for 4 years; Silver Lake will stay natural.) By the way, Councilman LaBonge is in charge of Ivanhoe, but Garcetti is in charge of Silver Lake. Pick your candidate and do battle.

Veronique forgot to mention that this is costing the city $2 million dollars, and the plastic balls are NOT recycled, nor will they be when they take them out in 4 years. LADWP is shameless, polluting, and ineffective.

Drinks, anyone?

[Red]

I don't think I ever remember claiming to be the smartest person in the room, but I do happen to have an extensive environmental background, and it doesn't take a rocket scientist and but a tiny bit of research to know that *any* kind of plastic heating in the sun and sitting in water is leaching chemicals. Plastic is made up of a cocktail of chemicals - that's a fact.

Furthermore, our government agencies NEVER admits there is anything wrong with anything they do! Are you kidding? This is the same government who *approves* of innumerable cancer causing toxic pesticides to be sprayed on our food and tells us it's *perfectly safe* and that there's *no proof* of harm! The same government that promotes extensive hormone and antibiotic use in our livestock, genetic engineering and petroleum based food colorings in our kids food. And that is barely the tip of the iceberg.

If we don't agree on this, then you're one of those people that blindly feeds this stuff to your kids and believes them when they tell you it's perfectly safe. We are just going to have to agree to disagree because no one will EVER convince me - least of all some government agency engineers - that thousands of plastic balls heating in the sun in my water isn't leaching chemicals equally as dangerous as what they were trying to prevent in the first place.

[david]

Wow. Who knew LA is full of arm chair geniuses who can look at a picture of balls and outsmart the PhDs and scientists who do this stuff for a living. I am amazed at the knee jerk paranoia.

[Judy Bennett]

I broker recycled plastic raw materials. These balls are produced specifically for this type of project. This is not the first time they've been used for this reason. The balls are made of polyethylene, which is the same type of materal from which milk jugs, shampoo and detergent bottles are made. They are made with a high percentage of recycled plastic.

[Donna Barstow]

Actually, Judy, you are wrong in this instance. These balls are new, from new plastic, and it's not polyethylene, which deteriorates differently, its HDPE, which another bird ball company told me is never recycled.

Milk jugs are recycled, as Sparkletts told me; they are not reused, as they break down easily. HDPE is tougher, but if you look on my blog (which I am not allowed to link to here), I have a page from Exxon I link to that describes 20 grades of HDPE, many of which are NOT safe to ingest.

[rob freeman]

It just occurred to me that you could throw a body in there and the balls will hide it for months.....

The Material Safety Data Sheet for HDPE states:

Waste Disposal Method
By disposal at approved landfill tips or incinerator oven. The product is assimilated to urban waste.

HANDLING AND STORAGE PRECAUTIONS
Keep away from sources of ignition or heat, in dry , well ventilated area. In storage and working rooms avoid spheres spilling as a possible cause of slipping.

[David S.]

Donna -- several comments regarding your last post:

HDPE is indeed polyethylene -- the acronym stands for high density polyethylene. LDPE (low density polyethylene, commonly used in clear bags and coatings on milk & juice cartons) and LLDPE (linear low density polyethylene, commonly used in trash bags) are the other two major grades of polyethylene resins.

HDPE is recycle code # 2 -- one of the two most commonly recycled plastics (PET used in soda and water bottles is the other). Milk jugs, detergent bottles, and grocery sacks are all relatively easy to recycle if they can be collected into batches that are not contaminated with other plastics like PET, PVC, polypropylene, nylon, and various others. Post-consumer recycled HDPE often ends up in things like milk crates or plastic lumber. Pre-consumer (product recycled inside a manufacturing facility) is generally re-used in the manufacturing process, usually blended into products that do not touch food or ingestible liquids.

Most plastics are recyclable IF you can collect and separate them into their distinct families. This is the challenge because there are so many different plastics out there and we do not have the infrastructure to separate them. Water separation is the most common method, but this only lends itself to separating 2 grades. PET (soda bottles) sinks whereas HDPE (milk bottles) floats, which is why this works. Methods of separation utilizing infrared scanners are becoming more popular and will allow for separation of more materials, but these systems are pricey and difficult to justify.

Plastics manufacturers have recycle streams within their plants to grind and reuse finished goods which do not meet performance specifications. Collection and separation in this case is much easier because the manufacturer knows what the materials are, what they are blended with (if anything), and where they have been.

Ingestible/edible products or products designed for inside the body use (implants, angioplasty balloons, etc.) fall under different regulations than food contact products used for packaging, cooking, or food storage. While my Rubbermaid containers are safe for cooking and storage, I would not go out of my way to chop them up and eat them. Unless there is some special stabilization package or colorant used, HDPE is generally safe for food contact.

Plasticizers (which tend to be a bad actor) are mostly used to control the flexibility and processability of PVC plastics (also known as vinyl). Shower curtain liners use lots of plasticizer whereas PVC pipe uses very little, if any. Plasticizers in this form are rarely, if ever, used in polyethylene or polypropylene.

Continuous exposure to sunlight will break down all kinds of materials, not just plastic. Think about how many things get damaged from prolonged exposure to the sun -- paint, shingles, curtains, fabrics, human skin, etc. Coloring parts black contributes significantly to the UV protection of the plastic parts, which is why dashboards, interior trim, and exterior trim of cars are often colored black. Black colorants are *much* more cost effective than other UV stabilizers.

Regarding the Material Safety Data Sheet, the storage conditions are common for just about any material out there. Plastics are usually sold in pellet form (like the beads used inside of a Beanie Baby) for ease of handling and reduction of static charge issues (powder is more hazardous in this regard). Spilled pellets essentially act like marbles on the floor and are a safety hazard in that regard. Slipping and falling on the concrete floor inside of a plastics production plant is never fun.

Regarding another poster's comments about the balls being a heat sink, I don't expect this to be a big issue. Plastic is an insulator, especially when hollow (what is your Igloo cooler made out of???) and shouldn't transmit much additional heat, if any, to the water. The balls will also reflect and diffract light, making it less intense in any particular spot and will provide some level of shade for anything below the surface of the water.

So, I expect the DWP did some research into the issue. It also mentioned in the article that the balls are a short term fix and that the longer-term solution is being developed. Hopefully they will follow through and provide an appropriate long-term solution.

[Judy Bennett]

Donna,

HDPE is polyethylene. The acronym stands for high density polyethylene. Milk jugs are definitely HDPE.They recycle easily because they are thin walled, not because of the type of plastic they are made from.

And there are several industrial ball manufacturers in the US not just one. ALL of them use their own scrap back in. They grind up the bad parts and put them right back into their next run. The process of making balls is tricky so there are a lot of bad parts involved. If they don't generate enough scrap internally, they buy more from people like me. There is no need to use 100% virgin material in an industrial ball. They would be absolutely stupid to do that and they DON'T do that. I talk to these companies and I know better. One reason these balls are black is because they probably contain a lot of recycled material. When you use recycled material, it generally comes in mixed colors, and so the product it is going into has to be colored black or another dark color to make it uniform.

David S. knows what he is talking about. He is 100% correct on all his points.

PS - where did you get the idea that only Exxon and Mobil made PE's (polyethylenes)? There are scores of companies that make this material. It is one of the most common polymers in existence.

[Non-CA resident]

Wow. This is fun!

Here in Wisconsin, we just blow out a dam when we get tired of looking at a specific lake or reservoir (while claiming it is a "flood").

Kudos for the extra effort on hiding non-natural water bodies! I'll bring this idea up the next time we destroy a man-made lake.

Your pal in WI

[Robert]

According to the article, the Bromate problem does NOT occur in reservoirs where the chlorine is added AFTER the water leaves the lake on it way to the consumers. Why not, use that method in Ivanhoe?

Also, today's LAT article on the toxic effects of PVC shower curtains says: "Vinyl chloride, which is a major building block of PVC, is a known human carcinogen that causes liver cancer." Phthalates found in PVC are linked to "developmental damage and harm to the liver and the central nervous, respiratory and reproductive systems, according to the report."

[Elliot]

I'm an american refugee... PLEASE! PLEASE! help me! I have a great personality and a strong work ethic. Desperate! Save me! Will work for passage to a new country!!

[Laurie Pepper]

I sent a message I sent to the people on my Neighborhood Watch mailing list headed: Silverlakians Arise? I have had a lot of responses including some from neighborhood council members. A meeting will be arranged soon. If anybody wants to hear about it, they can contact me at the email above.