Department of Water Resources
A daily compilation for DWR personnel of significant news articles and comment
June 10, 2008
1. Top Item -
DWP drops 400,000 balls onto Ivanhoe Reservoir
In a move to block the formation of a carcinogen in the water, the
By Francisco Vara-Orta, staff writer
The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power dropped the ball Monday.
Actually, it dropped 400,000 of them.
The agency started dumping thousands of floating plastic balls into Ivanhoe Reservoir -- the dwarf sibling next door to Silver Lake Reservoir, the neighborhood's crown jewel -- to protect the drinking water supply needed for summer.
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
Elected officials, community activists and two dozen DWP officials and maintenance workers grabbed a few balls out of a white tub and tossed them into the aquamarine pool after a brief news conference.
Pebble-heavy "plops" permeated the laughter of smiling onlookers. City Councilman Tom LaBonge shouted, "For quality of water for all of
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.
Resembling a stream of oversized caviar, the black balls rolled thunderously down the reservoir's slopes. "Water quality doesn't get more exciting than this," Marina J.F. Busatto, a DWP biologist, said smiling.
Within 30 minutes, a portion cordoned off in Ivanhoe was blanketed with the black balls.
"It looks like an oil spill," quipped Marilyn Oliver, 63, who has lived on a hill overlooking the reservoir for 45 years. But, she quickly added, "it's OK because it's temporary and the water quality is more important than the looks."
Open reservoirs exposed to sunlight are now rare. The area's reservoirs --
But the discovery of bromate prompted officials to look for ways of shading Elysian and Ivanhoe. A tarp would have been too expensive and a metal cover would take too long to install, especially in a year of drought. So one of the DWP's biologists, Brian White, suggested "bird balls," commonly used by airports to prevent birds from congregating in wet areas alongside runways.
Ivanhoe and Elysian reservoirs will be blanketed by about 3 million balls each for about four years, Parekh said.#
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-balls10-2008jun10,0,5878575.story?track=rss
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