California is using ‘shade balls’ to fight record-breaking drought

At first glance, it looks just like a ball pit for kids, something you’d expect to see at your local Chuck E. Cheese’s. But a closer look reveals it’s not a ball pit at all.

Over the last couple of months, Los Angeles city officials have been unleashing ‘shade balls’ into the local reservoirs in an effort to fight California’s record-breaking drought, USA Today reports.

California is entering its fourth consecutive year of severe droughts, which is “creating an extremely parched landscape.” Los Angeles city officials declared a state of emergency earlier this year and issued “strict conservation measures statewide.”

Facing an environmental crisis, L.A. has turned to an unusual method in order to conserve the city’s drinking water, and they’re the first to do so in the U.S.

Black plastic shade balls are useful for protecting drinking water by blocking out the sunlight. It’s actually “a clever water-cleaning device” too, according to Gizmodo.

Each ball prevents the chlorine in the water from reacting with sunlight to become bromated, which can have serious health repercussions.

It also reduces evaporation, protects the water from dirt and it only costs 36 cents apiece.

The shade balls are weighed down by the water, which keeps them in place and provides a shelf life of approximately ten years.

“This is a blend of how engineering really meets common sense,” Marcie Edwards of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, told ABC 7. “We saved a lot of money, we did all the right things.”

In total, 96 million shade balls have been dumped into the reservoir in Sylmar with the final 20,000 dropped this past Monday by L.A. mayor Eric Garcetti.

“These shade balls will conserve 300 million gallons of water each year, instead of evaporating into the sky,” Edwards told ABC 7. “That’s 300 million to fight this drought.”

The goal is go beyond and spread these black plastic balls everywhere in order to “have the healthiest water” possible.