TARGET 100127

This Black Ball Might Help Prevent Cancer

This black plastic ball can keep people from getting sick.


That is, if you have enough of them in the right place.


But you're going to need LOTS of them.

The Ivanhoe, California reservoirs holds the water which has been cleaned and renewed through filtering and the use of chlorine and bromine to kill off any backterial substances. The water is then put into the open reservior to allow the chemicals to dissipate, thus creating a reservoir of clean water.

There has been a problem, though. While the sunlight shining on the water evaporates the chlorine and bromine, the groundwater here has naturally occuring bromide. That bromide leeches into the water and is processed by the sunlight along with the other chemicals. However, bromide doesn't evaporate. It turns to bromate, a chemical knows to be a strong carcinogen which researchers believe may be causing cancer in the custemers served by the water supply.

The 10-acre, 58-million-gallon Ivanhoe Reservoir, a 102-year-old facility serves about 600,000 customers in both downtown Los Angeles and South of the city.

So, on June 10, 2008, workers from the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power lugged bags of black plastic balls - out to the reservoir. City councilman Tom LaBonge picked three of the balls out of one of the bags and tossed them into the reservoir, shouting, "For quality of water for all of Los Angeles!". Onlookers chuckled and applauded.


At a signal from DWP General Manager David Nahai, a dozen crew members began opening dozens of white nylon bags that lined the reservoir. Each bag bulged with 2,100 balls.


They kept pouring.


And STILL kept pouring







Until more than 190 bags of balls had turned the blue water of the reservoir to the black of the balls.

You may notice in that last photo that once the balls hit the water, they started forming structural patterns, just as molecules would in a crystal. I know that these patterns act as attractors to remote viewers, so I've chosen to make that picture larger so you can check your perception, if you got one or more in the "patterns" category.

The Department of Water and Power spokesman said that the balls will also deter birds from landing on the water and fouling it with their effluence.

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. Any other color would have let at least some light through, lessening the amount of protection from the sun's rays.

The balls cost 34 cents each. All together, the balls are costing $2 million. They are non-toxic and UVA-stable (the sun won't affect them).

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To learn more about this event, take a look at the following web sites:
The Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Curbed.com
Spike.com
Now Public.com
Riversphere