Providing people with clean drinking water is extremely important. When that water is consumed by a large number of people, it has to go through a number of purifying steps to ensure it is safe.

For most city water supplies, this means regularly taking samples, running tests, and having it constantly monitored by machines that can detect various contaminants.

For the city of Warsaw, Poland, however, this is done, at least in part, by a small team of mussels.

Wodociagi Warszawskie is the water company for the area, and they say on their website:

“At Warsaw Waterworks, we use biomonitoring to increase the safety of the water treatment process. The mussels we use from the species of the sharp-edged river mussel are very sensitive to water pollution and are used to monitor water quality in the Vistula and Lake Zegrze.”

This is effective because mussels require clean and highly oxygenated water to thrive. When they detect chemicals or various other contaminants, they close up to avoid any health issues.

So, the water company uses this natural process to monitor the water supply for hazards. First, they catch the mussels and put them into a water tank at a laboratory for a few weeks to allow them to acclimate to that water and to measure how open their shell is normally. From there, they are placed into the water supply.

Once ready, the mussels are placed onto a pedestal and they have a probe attached to them. They are then placed into the water supply and monitored.

If the quality of the water goes down, the mussels will close their shells in order to keep themselves safe. When their shells close up, the humans are notified and can take further tests or even shut off the water supply if needed.

Don’t worry about the mussels though. They are just doing what comes naturally to them. After they do this ‘work’ for a few months, they get to retire to live out the rest of their lives, which can be several decades, back in the reservoir where they were found.

If interested, you can see how this is done in a fun video here:

Sometimes using nature is the best solution to a problem.

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