We're All Gonna Die!

Today the project engineer came into my office completely panicked. A man was in the office kitchen testing the water and he shared the data with the project engineer. Now the project engineer knew our water discharge standards for chlorine were 0.05 mg/L and this man's tests were showing much higher levels. The project engineer came to find me to figure out why that was and how to fix it. After listening to the two men, I realized everything was fine. Drinking water standards and aquatic life standards are different, particularly when it come to chlorine. Chlorine kills fish, but humans need it in the water to kill diseases or else we die. The discharge limit is for the fish and the office water was for humans. The numbers are supposed to be different. I'll never forget the panicked look on my boss's boss's face. Too funny. Afterward I had the scary realization that the project engineer had just come to me, an intern, for help and called me the project "expert" on the subject. Yicks! I better hope I know this stuff.