More than a year later, it can definitely be said shade balls helped save California's water, Business Insider reported. In August of last year, 95 million of these so-called shade balls were dumped into the 175-acre Los Angeles Reservoir to protect water from things like dust, animals, and the sun.
Citing Director of operations of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (which owns and manages the reservoir) Richard Harasick, Business Insider called the shade balls successful. The balls helped prevent evaporation by attracting UV rays thanks to their dark color. LA Mayor Eric Garcetti previously said the shade balls would save 300 million gallons of water by reducing evaporation. It is unknown how much water was actually saved in the year the shade balls have been in place.
At 36 cents for each plastic ball, the shade balls were far more inexpensive a solution than the reservoir changes totaling over $300 million that would've been needed to achieve the same result. Harasick said, "Construction was infeasible as the immense surface area of the space would have required two separate covers and a division dam." Shade balls on the other hand cost $34.5 million.
Despite the shade balls' success, this will reportedly be the last time the LADWP uses them.
California's water-saving success is something to applaud amidst the depressing news that Earth has lost 10 percent of wilderness in the last 20 years because of humans and that the record for the hottest year ever has been broken for a ninth time in a row.
