| OCR Text |
Show 'Algae' Worry Scientists Seeking Pure V ater Supply Supplying pure, good-tasting water wa-ter to a modern city has its ups and downs. One of the biggest "downs" is the sudden appearance of a smell or taste suggesting moldy basements, base-ments, cucumbers, pig pens or long-dead long-dead fishes. This means that algae is in the reservoir and instead of calling the police with a drag-net, the trouble shooters at the water works go hunting with a microscope. Algae are the simplest and most ancient forms of plant life. They do not bother drinking water as long as they behave themselves. Usually they are taken care of by filtration and other purification. But, like any crowd, there is always a smart aleck or two. That is when the superintendent superin-tendent of the reservoir has his worries. wor-ries. Nearly every city water system that draws its supply from surface reservoirs must be guarded constantly con-stantly against sudden invasions of such algae and their relatives, writes Walter E. Burton in Nature Magazine. The chemist at the water wa-ter works keeps a rogue's gallery of photomicrographs of the offenders. offend-ers. Once they are identified he starts in to round them up and out. One of the most offensive algae Reservoir Enemy No. 1 is Synura Uvella. He is a two-tailed creature that likes to travel in gangs of 50 or so. Such a bunch, magnified 600 times, makes a spot about the size of a quarter. Three of these gangs in a gallon of water will make it taste pretty awful some say like geraniums; others like dead fish. Synura loves the cold, so is specially offensive in winter. Anabaena is good-looking algae under the microscope with cells arranged ar-ranged in graceful curlicues. However, How-ever, it creates an odor and taste described as "grassy, moldy and vile." Asterionella adds the delightful delight-ful touch of a pig-pen odor to the reservoir water, and it, too, is pretty, pret-ty, with its cells arranged like a star. These and other public water enemies ene-mies are one reason why you have a water bill to pay. Just as you need a police department to protect you, so you need the men at the water works, particularly the trained chemists, to keep the water pure, ard tasty |
