MT. BALDY, CA, Dec. 13, 2013 -- Efforts to reduce water evaporation at The Mount Baldy Ski Lifts in Mt. Baldy, Calif., are underway with the installation of hundreds of hollow plastic conservation balls in its reservoir.
Serving as the first ski resort in the world to use this particular evaporation reduction method, Mt. Baldy operates a 10-million-gallon reservoir used mainly for snow-making during the ski season. The large reservoir is fed by a smaller 1-million-gallon one further down the mountain and is filled from natural underground wells. The expense to pump water up the mountain from the smaller to the larger reservoir is $10,000 a month. This amount would be significantly higher if they had to pay for the water.
"The cost of water evaporation is a hidden expense. Unlike payroll, insurances and food costs, water evaporation doesn't show up as a line item on the balance sheet and therefore can easily be ignored," said Ellingson. "But it is a very real and very big expense. I didn't realize how big until we heard about hollow conservation balls."
Two main causes of water evaporation in reservoirs are temperature and surface area. The hollow plastic conservation balls address these two issues effectively and inexpensively. By their nature, the balls rearrange themselves to fit any size and shape reservoir. As water levels drop, the conservation balls accommodate the situation by stacking on themselves. When water level rise, the balls return to single layer on the surface. "Unlike other types of reservoir covers, once the conservation balls are installed, they are maintenance free," said Ellingson.
Mt. Baldy Ski Lifts signed a contract with XavierC LLC to supply the conservation balls in September of 2013. "We are excited that Mt. Baldy is the flagship for conservation balls in the ski industry," said Ellingson. "By industry standards our reservoir is small, so resorts with larger ones will save far more money."
For more information about XavierC LLC and their hollow plastic water-filled conservation balls,call 626-385-8262 or visit http://www.reduceskiareareservoirevaporation.com/index.html.
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