Water fleas turned into toxic-waste detectives

They give their lives so that ours will be safer.

Of course, when you’re a water flea or a fathead minnow, you don’t have a lot of choice.

These tiny creatures tell us if sewage-treatment plants and industries are piping toxic waste into our waterways.

By law, the industrial plants should not release wastewater that is toxic. To prove that they are complying, they hire labs such as James R. Reed & Associates in Newport News, Va.

Clients of the 23-person lab include the sewage plants of Richmond and the Virginia counties of Chesterfield, Hanover and Henrico.

In a clean, bright room, workers put fathead minnows and water fleas into samples of wastewater to test it for toxicity. The tests involve computer programs and statistical analyses, but the bottom line is that if these common fresh-water animals do well, the waste is not toxic.

If the creatures die, or if they don’t properly grow or reproduce, the waste is toxic. That means the plant or industry has to figure out what went wrong and fix it.
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