'Shade Balls'
Plastic balls are California’s water-savers
Millions of black ‘shade balls’ float on the surface of reservoirs, slowing evaporation.

Thousands of black plastic balls were released into the Los Angeles Reservoir to help with evaporation. (Photo: KABC)
They’re hypnotic and incredibly odd. Thousands of black plastic “shade balls” were released this week into the Los Angeles Reservoir to float and bob on the surface, looking like a kind of dark playground ball pit.
The release of this batch of 20,000 balls into the 175-acre reservoir was the culmination of a $34.5 million initiative to protect the water supply that involved the deployment of a whopping 96 million plastic balls into the water. Read more.