400,000 Bouncy Balls Help Protect Against Carcinogen In Water Reserves

The water needs to be shaded because when sunlight mixes with the bromide and chlorine in Ivanhoe's water, the carcinogen bromate forms, said Pankaj Parekh, DWP's director for water quality compliance. Bromide is naturally present in groundwater and chlorine is used to kill bacteria, he said, but sunlight is the final ingredient in the potentially harmful mix.

The DWP drop was designed to stop the three from mingling in the 10-acre, 58-million-gallon Ivanhoe Reservoir. The 102-year-old facility serves about 600,000 customers downtown and in South Los Angeles.

More information via McDaniel and Brian White, biologist for the DWP:

---Eventually, 3 million black balls will fill the reservoir. They will stay in the reservoir for 3-5 years.

---The balls are being made by Orange Products,
a company out of Allentown, Pennsylvania. The city has a contract with
Orange Products, which will deliver 200,000 new balls a week to the
reservoir. Basically, Orange Products has shut down work on everything
else just to make our balls.

---Was there another color option other than black? No, there was not.

---The balls cost 34 cents each. All together, the balls are costing $2 million. Paid by for you, dear water user.

--The balls are non-toxic and UVA-stable (the sun won't affect them).