I thought this was rather interesting. There is an open reservoir in Los Angeles which has recently been discovered to contain elevated levels of Bromate. Bromate has been discovered to cause cancer but according to scientists, the risk is only attached to humans if bromate is consumed over the course of one’s lifetime.

According to the LA Times piece:

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.

So instead of placing a tent over the entire body of water, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power dropped 400,000 pebble weighted black balls into the reservoir to act as a blanket from the sun. This is the same technique used to deter birds from congregating in water covered openings near airports.

Here is a link to the video showcasing the massive ball drop – 400,000 balls dropped into the water

I would of embedded their video into the blog, but they have some of the worst embed code I have ever seen. It doesn’t even work when posting it into the WordPress post editor, even in HTML mode.