Comments on: DWP dumps 6 million plastic balls in Silver Lake drinking water.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 19:37:39 +0000

Thanks

By: Hathor

Hathor — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 23:44:09 +0000

Hi Donna, really great post, a bunch of us mothers were wondering about the black balls, and then the discussion turned to plastic bottles and drinking water and a why you should stop buying bottles and then when I was researching the birdballs I found your post which ties it all nicely together…thanks!
xox,
Heather Cushman-Dowdee

By: hard plastic drinking water containers

hard plastic drinking water containers — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 11:29:09 +0000

[...] plastic! … 8 Responses to &8220DWP dumps 6 million plastic balls in Silver Lake drinking water.http://donnabarstow.com/park_blog/2008/04/14/dwp-dumps-hdpe-plastic-in-silver-lake-drinking-water/We&39ll have to coin a word for our newly found fear of plastics – Sault StarPerhaps the last [...]

By: CONCRETE JUNGLE » Blog Archive » Defending the Water Supply

CONCRETE JUNGLE » Blog Archive » Defending the Water Supply — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 15:18:40 +0000

[...] Donna Barstow has an interesting blog post about her research into the safety of the “bird balls” and Curbed LA has an informative writeup with more pictures and information. [...]

By: Eric

Eric — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 03:02:20 +0000

99% coverage will result in (roughly) a 99% decrease in the rate of Bromate formation, which should result in a 99% reduction in Bromate levels.

Regarding leakage leaching, the main leachate from HDPE pipe is from phenol based antioxidants. Some phenol compounds could potentially be nasty, but if they didn’t care about degradation, and didn’t use the antioxidants in the bird balls, then there wouldn’t be much leachage from the balls. The HDPE itself is fairly inert, and will have (comparatively) harmless breakdown products.

By: Patrick

Patrick — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 23:12:26 +0000

I have never seen plastic that can stand up to extended exposure to the sun, even fence posts exposed to the sun eventually become brittle and break, pool deck furniture, etc. I cannot imagine that these balls will be different.

My big question is what will the effect be on bacteria and other microorganisms be if the temperature of the lake is raised by 10 to 15 degrees year-round? I would imagine that these balls will have the same effect as a black pool cover, reducing evaporation (cooling), collecting and trapping the heat from the sun.

Being in the tire industry myself, I know I would not want carbon black used in any product that was going to come close to my mouth or that I might breath in.

This whole idea seems ludicrous. Even if you cover the whole lake with balls, they are round and there will always be gaps between them so they will not completely prevent sunlight from reaching the water. Will covering 99% be able to give you the desired result?

By: dubby

dubby — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 21:34:45 +0000

And how will we dispose of all this plastic? Aren’t our landfills impacted enough?

Umm and what about Heat Island Effect – did they just essentially create a huge asphalt parking lot?

By: Answers are everywhere… Are you looking right? | no.stupid.answers

Answers are everywhere… Are you looking right? | no.stupid.answers — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 08:21:54 +0000

[...] Griffith Park, Interrupted is hesitant to reuse plastic bottles. [...]