Meanwhile, in L.A.

Now this is an environmental oxymoron if we've ever seen one: Yesterday, 40,000 black plastic bouncy balls were released into a 10-acre, 58 million gallon water reservoir that serves up the H20 to 600,000 people in L.A. And no, it was not for a YouTube video (though we're sure there's one out there already). Rather, the ball drop was sanctioned by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power as a means of controlling high levels of carcinogenic bromate in the water by blocking sunlight. 30,000 more are to follow. [Gizmodo]