Small Fish Detect Big Problems

Reported March 2007

FORT DETRICK, Md. (Ivanhoe Broadcast News) -- Do you know where your water comes from? Tap water comes from many different sources. Before it gets to the faucet, tater treatment plants clean up water from lakes, rivers and reservoirs, but it can still get contaminated by industrial and agricultural spills.

Lt. Col. Matt Schofield, Ph.D., an environmental scientist at the US Army Center for Environmental Health Research in Fort Detrick, Md., says, "Everybody drinks water, and the question of whether or not there's a contaminant or a toxic substance in the water is very real."

According to US Army Center for Environmental Health Research biologist Tom Shedd, Ph.D., when there are changes in water quality, there are changes in fish behavior.

Now to help make sure your water is safe, environmental scientists are using something that lives in the water to monitor it closely -- fish! In a new early warning system called IAC 1090 or the "intelligent Aquatic BioMonitoring System," bluegills are signal of toxins in our water.

Eight fish sit in chambers submersed in water from a nearby water supply. If pollutants are present, the fish will change their breathing patterns. Electrodes in each chamber monitor any changes. If six fish are stressed, an alarm goes off.

Dr. Shedd says at that moment they don't necessarily know what is the contaminant or the stressor to the fishes, but you know that it's there. The fish have reacted to two farming spills. Officials were able to prevent any toxins from getting into drinking water.

To protect the fish, each fish is replaced with a newer, younger fish after spending three weeks monitoring water supplies. The system, originally developed by the Army for the Army, is now available commercially to cities and towns and is currently being used in New York, San Francisco, and Washington.

"The fish system is a common sense, logical way to monitor for water quality," Dr. Shedd says, helping to keep their water -- and yours -- safe.

Click here to Go Inside This Science or contact:

American Water Works Association
Denver, CO
(303) 794-7711
(800) 926-7337
http://www.awwa.org

Chuck Dasey
(301) 619-2736
chuck.dasey@det.amedd.army.mil

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