Goldfish test water quality

From the CBC: City turns to goldfish to test water quality.

A school of goldfish in Edmonton has the important job of testing the cleanliness of the city's water.

Currently, wastewater is held at the plant. No one knows if it is safe to release into the city's waterways or if it needs further treatment first.

To find out, researchers are turning to goldfish. If the fish go belly up, then there's a problem.

"It might not actually kill them," said Greg Goss, a biology professor at the University of Alberta. "It likely won't."

Goss and his team want to see if wastewater is safe to dump into the North Saskatchewan River.

The goldfish will live in tanks for the next six months, where they'll undergo regular physical checkups to see if the contaminants, pharmaceuticals, herbicides and heavy metals in the water have any effect on life. [continue]

Posted on April 22, 2005 08:35 PM. Filed under: environment.