Much as coal miners used canaries to detect toxic gases in mines, the city will use a type of water flea to test reservoirs for toxins that could be dumped by terrorists. The Altoona City Authority said it will use Daphnia water fleas to check water in the reservoirs. The authority recently agreed to pay $4,450 for a Kingwood Diagnostics Q-Tox startup kit and about $10,200 annually to maintain the system. The authority’s current testing looks for mostly organic compounds that can leach into its 13 reservoirs, but does not check for poisons, such as cyanide, ricin or soman. Use of the tiny brownish crustaceans, which are hypersensitive to poisons, will take care of that. Full Story
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