Emergency Management - Fall 2008 - (Page 31)

If six or more of the eight ﬁsh behave abnormally, the system provides immediate alarm. Two-way communication allows remote monitoring and control of computer operation. Water treatment plant personnel assess operations. the system picks most substances up within an hour, so you have a window of opportunity to take some type of action.” Eight bluegills are “online” at any one time, Lawler said, adding that’s the smallest statistically significant sample that can be used. Those fish stay on duty for two to three weeks, and are And no one monitors the fish or the system in-person — when six of those eight fish start acting strangely, the system sends an alarm. “You want it to be reliable and accurate, and nobody really has time or can afford to pay someone to sit there and watch the fish all the time,” Lawler said. “So this system was designed “As the economy turns down, there just isn’t enough money to accomplish some of the environmentally relevant activities that you should be doing. I’m not saying it’s a bad world out there, but there are some things folks can justify based on where they are in their current financial situation.” — Tom Shedd, research aquatic biologist, Center for Environmental Health Research then rotated with eight new fish from another aquarium where the fish get to rest. “We’re told by the scientists that they can go significantly longer, like eight to 10 weeks,” he said, “but we run them only two to three, tops.” Water coming in to the bluegills for testing runs through a system — a series of pumps and thermo-chillers — to keep the temperature constant so that’s not a variable that affects them. “We want everything the same so they’re not being disturbed by any outside influences other than just the water,” Lawler said. “They get very sensitive to that.” At least six of the eight fish must change their behavior to cause alarm about contamination, he said. “If one or two fish are having a bad day, it’s not going to cause an alarm,” Lawler said. “And that does happen, so you want to make sure.” basically to run an automatic, powerful, reliable and accurate, early warning capability.” What’s in the Water? The bluegills can detect any type of toxicity, but Lawler said the trick with toxicity is that there are so many possible variations. “The bluegill has such a broad detection range, he said. “And these compounds are forming and mutating; depending on the water, you can get a wide variety of toxic material.” The system’s cost depends on different factors — it can handle everything from raw resource water to chlorinated water. Those types of water, however, must be treated because bluegills are freshwater fish. “Chlorinated water is toxic to fish, but we have a device that can actually dechlorinate it without removing the toxins so the fish can still monitor treated water,” Lawler said. “A few other things come with that, but the basic system itself is less than about $60,000.” So far, the system has been effective, he said, though there have been no big threats against the drinking water supplies. “One of the systems at Fort Detrick, for example, alerted — they think someone cleaned a pesticide truck in the river,” Lawler said. “And it did actually end up killing all the fish, but it sent out an alarm before that happened.” The city shut the water off, but fish at the facility monitor both the treated and the raw water. The fish monitoring the raw water sent out the alarm, but the fish monitoring the treated water were fine, Lawler said. A sand filter in place didn’t let the contaminate pass through to the bluegills monitoring the treated water. The city of Fredericksburg, Va., also shut off its water supply as a precaution because it’s only about 100 yards down from the water intake at Fort Detrick. With bluegills protecting drinking water on each coast, what’s next for the freshwater species? “Some of those agro issues you see out there — I think we have had some interest in those sectors,” Lawler said, “which might be a way to protect the water that goes and treats our food supply.” k Emergency Management 31

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Emergency Management - Fall 2008

Emergency Management - Fall 2008 Contents Contributors Editor’s Letter In the Field Deep Freeze EM Bulletin Major Player In the News Uncharted Waters Bio-Sensing Bluegills Joint Accounts Education Directory Degress of Change Triage in 3-D Products Eric's Corner Last Word

Emergency Management - Fall 2008

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