The Golden state has been fighting the intensifying drought crisis for a while now, and has taken several measures to avert disaster.
On Monday, LA Mayor Eric Garcetti facilitated the release of 96 million “shade balls” into the Los Angeles reservoir, in hopes of water conservation and protection.
These plastic balls are colored black and designed to help block sunlight, thus helping protect water quality. They also prevent unwanted chemical reactions and decrease algae blooms.
As a bonus, this $34 million project is not labour intensive and the balls require no assembly. The state is saving $250 million when compared to other initiatives.
Mitchell Englander, city councilor said, “The shade balls also come with the added benefit of reducing evaporation by nearly 300 million gallons (about 1.1 billion litres) a year- enough to supply drinking water to 8,100 people.”
In April, Gov. Jerry Brown imposed a mandatory water use reduction by 25 percent on all local water supply agencies. He said,“The idea of your nice little green lawn getting watered every day, those days are past.” Surveys showed high levels of concern and that the citizens of California were ready to to comply with whatever measures the state took. Even hospitals, one of the largest consumers of water, began taking steps to conserve as much as possible.
With the looming worry of global warming impacting the risk of increasing wildfires, a lot hangs on this “shade ball” initiative.
