August 25 2020

Today was such a beautiful sunny day.

So refreshing after the rainy, overcast and bitterly cold weather that's dominated the last two weeks around here.

My activity... was, just another day working at a Water Treatment Plant.

Today's images:

A view into Sedimentation Tank #4, which just finished draining out today.

Capacity: 20 million litres of water.

It took two weeks to empty.

Soon, there will be scaffolding installed at the far end and when that's done, down we go inside for cleaning, a concrete inspection and any needed maintenance.

This is me scooping up a couple of juvenile fish fry that I found in one of the Sludge Plant thickeners this morning.

Since starting at this WTP about a year ago, I have seen on occasion small schools of fish in parts of the plant upstream of the chlorination and filtration systems, such as the sedimentation tanks.

The population tends to wax and wane in response to changes in raw water quality, Aluminium Sulfate dose rate changes or if we have to dose Powdered Activated Carbon at the head of the plant.

I have always wanted to catch some and grow them out to see what species they are, but I could never reach them.

This time though, strangely, I found them in the thickener. Never seen them there before.

The fish are likely to be the freshwater species Perca fluviatilis, also known as Redfin or European Perch. However, I can't be sure as yet, so will have to wait and see.

How the fish got there in the first place is a mystery. They would've had to survive being violently pulled through one of the Raw Water Pumps. These enormously powerful machines draw water from the reservoir and feed it into the plant at an average rate of ~2500 litres per second.

So, how does a fish, half the size of a baked bean, survive that?

Moreover, how does a Monarch Butterfly, practically the animal equivalent of tissue paper, undertake transoceanic and transcontinental migration flights?

Incredible isn't it!

... Life, you know, finds a way.

... And I, you know, need to be finding my way to sleep.

See ya!

👍