my job

Last November I started my job as an environmental biologist/lab technician. What does that mean exactly you ask? In short, I test water. But here's a more convoluted response to my occupation.

Any company that has effluent (waste water) that is going to be released into a water body (i.e. river or ocean) is required--by the government--to test the effluent to ensure that it is not toxic to the level of harming the ecosystem, or the organisms within the system. That is where we come in.

We test the water on both rainbow trout and Daphnia magma (water fleas) to determine the lethal concentration for 50% of the organisms in the test (LC50) or the lethal time for 50% of the organisms in the test (LT50). Once these values are determined, the test either passes or fails based on guidelines presented by the government. A failure results in repeated testing, and in extreme cases closure of the company until the situation is remedied.

You will all be happy to know, that failures are few and far between so although the water often looks nasty, it is not nearly as toxic as we might imagine.