Los Angeles is throwing shade at its water problem — literally.

The city has deployed a total of 96 million "shade balls" into the LA Reservoir in an effort to save 300 million gallons of water.

See also: California moves to enact steep water fines due to historic drought

California is currently in the midst of its worst drought on record, and all hands are on deck to conserve the state's precious water supply.

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, for its part, is contributing to the effort by rolling out thousands of small, black plastic balls to protect water quality by "preventing sunlight-triggered chemical reactions, deterring birds and other wildlife, and protecting water from rain and wind-blown dust," according to a press release from LA Mayor Eric Garcetti, who is seen in the video below.

Shade Balls in the LA Reservoir Mayor Eric Garcetti "had a ball," or more like 20,000 balls, with Councilmember Mitchell Englander and LADWP officials today in Sylmar as they dropped the last of 96 million shade balls onto the surface of LA Reservoir. The balls will block out the sunlight and help ensure the highest quality drinking water for LA.This important water infrastructure investment helps guarantee LA's tap water is pure and clean, all while keeping rates still the lowest in the Southern California region. http://tinyurl.com/pv5bbp5 Posted by Los Angeles Department of Water & Power on Monday, August 10, 2015

The black plastic balls are used as floating covers to reduce water evaporation in reservoirs. The 96 million that were deployed into the 175-acre reservoir were a cost-effective investment that is expected to save the city at least $250 million in comparison to other water-saving alternatives — for example, splitting the reservoir in two with a bisecting dam, or installing two floating covers that would have cost about $300 million. (The Environmental Protection Agency mandates some kind of cover on a reservoir.)

Instead, the $34.5 million initiative (that's $0.36 for each ball) is much more low-maintenance — they don't require construction, parts, or labor, other than deploying them and occasionally rotating them.

On Monday, the last 20,000 of the balls were rolled out, bringing the initiative to completion. The reservoir, which holds about 3.3 billion gallons of water, is enough to supply the entire city of Los Angeles for up to three weeks.

“As the drought continues, it has never been more important to focus on innovative ways to maintain the highest quality drinking water for our 4 million residents," Councilmember Mitchell Englander said in the press release.

“In addition to cutting back on the need to chemically treat our water to prevent natural occurrences like algae, these shade balls are a cost-effective way to reduce evaporation each year by nearly 300 million gallons, enough to provide drinking water for 8,100 people for a full year.”

LA just completed a project at the LA Reservoir to save 300 million gallons of water by deploying shade balls on its surface, saving our city over $250 million dollars while keeping our water clean & safe. Posted by Mayor Eric Garcetti on Monday, August 10, 2015

XavierC, the company that manufactures the conservation balls, said that they address the two main issues of water conservation: temperature and surface area. The balls take up about 90% of the water surface area to protect it from evaporating, in addition to preventing UV rays from reaching the water.

"By their nature, the conservation balls re-arrange themselves to fit any size and shape reservoir," says a statement on the company's website. "As water levels drop the balls again accommodate the situation by stacking on themselves. When water levels rise, the balls return to single layer on the surface."

Sydney Chase, a spokeswoman for XavierC, added that the balls are painted black because the color provides more protection than any translucent or opaque color would.

"After decades of testing, black has been deemed the color that provides the best protection," she told Mashable. "The other issue is sun protection — sunlight reflects right off the surface instead of penetrating through, like it would with translucent colors."

"The color concentrate is made of a certain material," she added, "and that also has to be tested to make sure it complies with drinking water standards."

She did not specifically address why the balls were not painted white, however, which would have a higher reflectance of solar radiation than black does. However, the Los Angeles Times reported that the black "was added to the plastic to stabilize the balls in UV light from the sun."

In addition to being used in water reservoirs, Chase told Mashable that the shade balls are also deployed "anywhere where there's a great deal of water, like waste water treatment plants, water districts, ponds in mining industries, and at airports to keep birds away."

Two birds with one stone, then (sorry).