Water-Quality Canaries: Using Mussels to Detect Contaminants

Along the Mississippi River, two water treatment plants are experimenting with mussels to detect contaminants in raw water. Could these mollusks become our best early-warning system?
Water-Quality Canaries: Using Mussels to Detect Contaminants
Water departments in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and Moline, Illinois, are using native freshwater mussels in pilot programs as early-warning systems to detect possible contamination in the river.

In an era of increasingly sophisticated technology, two treatment plants on the Mississippi River are experimenting with what might be the original water-quality gauge: mussels.

Water departments in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and Moline, Illinois, are using native freshwater...

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