For the animals

Today I learned about Sodium Thiosulfate.

We have a HUGE (that doesn't even begin to describe it) hole in our street.  I would estimate it is 20' x 20' x 20'.

There's a water main break under our street and they've been working on it for a week plus.  There's a guy out on 24 hour duty (okay, multiple guys on shifts) to keep people from falling in, and he'll usually answer the public's questions about what's going on.

The water main break means water needs to be pumped out, and they're pumping it on to our street, which goes down the sewer lines and out to the ocean.

The weirdest thing is that they've been dripping a liquid in to it from 5 gallon jugs, just a few drops a minute.  The jug is just set up on the curb with a drip valve on it.  It's labeled Sodium Thiosulfate, and my boyfriend was curious as to what it was for.  So we learned a thing or two.  Basically, it dechlorinates water so that it makes it safe for animals to drink. From wikipedia;

To dechlorinate tap water for aquariums or treat effluent from waste water treatments prior to release into rivers. The reduction reaction is analogous to the iodine reduction reaction. Treatment of tap water requires between 0.1 grams and 0.3 grams of pentahydrated (crystalline) sodium thiosulfate per 10 liters of water.


Somehow I don't think the jug with the valve on it on the curb is that precisely metered.