Damn you, Kermit! (long)

[Knightmare]

"The plant is in reject!"

That's the first thing I heard when I strolled into the office this morning. That phrase is never a good thing to hear at a waste waster treatment plant. Especially at 7:30 in the morning.

So we scramble, trying to find out what the cause was. Whatever it was happened at 5:45 yesterday evening. We're reading charts, looking at graphs, turning off or acknowledging alarms, shutting off valves here and redirecting flows there.

What determines if the plant goes into reject is our TSS (Total Suspended Solids) meter/analyzer. How much "stuff" is still in the water after we treat it. Our goal is to have a TSS reading of less than one. Normal operation is in the 1-2 range. 5 or above and we are in reject. Our meter this morning read 574!

So we thought it was a faulty meter. I run down and check it out. Besides the abnormally high reading, everything is fine. While I'm down there, I grab a sample of the effluent (water leaving the plant) and run to the lab to do a test.

After doing the test, I make my normal morning rounds - reading the meters, grabbing samples, taking measurements, and a general overall plant inspection. Everything looks groovy. My morning rounds take me to the lab, so while I'm there, I get the results of the TSS test I took 70 minutes earlier. Comes back at 1.7. A little higher than yesterday, but nothing to be alarmed about. Well within normal operations.

I did my other lab tests. Everything is great. In fact, we have an extremely healthy bug population. That's cool. So....
So the plant is actually running very smoothly. Why are we in reject? We can't figure it out.

I hoof it back down to the TSS meter. Now, what I did earlier was check out the meter, not the analyzer. So I thought I would open up the analyzer and check the lens. Maybe something is blocking it so it can't get a proper reading. Or there may be something in the water.

I kneel down and open up the analyzer (think of a bucket with a lid on top, and a shaft running down into it. The shaft has a lens on it that reads the TSS, and cables run up to the TSS meter).

"Ribbit!" I pull my head back, startled. WTF? I look back in the analyzer. There is a fucking FROG in my analyzer! How the Hell did that get in there? There is no way a frog can get inside it. No way. There is a very small opening in the lid, but the frog had to be at least 20 times larger than that hole.

I grab my Nextel and call the boss. "Hey, I think I may have found the problem!" I tell him.
"Yeah? What is it?" he asks.
"The analyzer has a new occupant, and I don't think he wants to leave. There is a green tree frog in there."
"I'll be right down."

I scoop the frog out and place him on the ground. I like frogs. They eat all those damn blind mosquitoes and spiders that are down there. And they sing better than I do. I then drain the water and hose out the analyzer. The frog, as far as I know, has been in there since 5:45 yesterday evening. He probably peed and pooped in there, making the sample water dirty.

Now to sit back and wait. The boss comes down. Both he and I stare at that damn frog, then back at the meter. Frog. Meter. Frog. Meter. Ahhh, look! The meter is dropping. The numbers are getting lower.

Five minutes later the meter is reading a 1.3 TSS. Glory be! We are saved! We turn back to look at the frog, but he took off. Gone. Good, because he probably knew what was going to happen to him. That little frog put us into reject; we lost 586,000 gallons because of that damn frog.

Man, was it fun writing what the cause was in the Official Log Book. I think FDEP will get a chuckle when they read that report.

And we still can't explain how that frog got inside the analyzer.

[Diablo]

Little Gremlins

In the middle of the Persian Gulf, an ET on watch opened a new pack of smokes and just tossed the plastic wrapper over his shoulder I guess. It ended up on the vent to some pretty important electronics. Five minutes later, we had a full plant shutdown. Thanks to some earlier training, we were in an usual lineup so the other reactor was still down. One fool and his litter left a multi billion dollar warship dead in the water. I got to work on the paperwork we had to send to Washington, not pretty at all.

[XCashier]

"Ribbit!" I pull my head back, startled. WTF? I look back in the analyzer. There is a fucking FROG in my analyzer!

I can totally picture your expression as you open the analyzer and see a green face looking back at you.

We turn back to look at the frog, but he took off. Gone. Good, because he probably knew what was going to happen to him.

Aww, I was hoping you guys would keep him around as a mascot.

Still, at least it wasn't something worse. And you'll have a good funny story to tell your coworkers.

In the middle of the Persian Gulf, an ET on watch opened a new pack of smokes and just tossed the plastic wrapper over his shoulder I guess. It ended up on the vent to some pretty important electronics. Five minutes later, we had a full plant shutdown. Thanks to some earlier training, we were in an usual lineup so the other reactor was still down. One fool and his litter left a multi billion dollar warship dead in the water.

That is a serious Achilles' Heel in the ship design.

I don't envy the schmuck who threw the litter, I bet he got his butt reamed good!

[Kat33auS]

And we still can't explain how that frog got inside the analyzer.

Could he had snuck in there as a tadpole?

[Knightmare]

It's possible, but not probable.
Water constantly circulates through the analyzer. It comes in one end, hangs around for a few hours, then leaves.
If the tadpole survived the treatment process, it would also have to survive a massive dose of super duper heavy duty industrial chlorine.
Then, it would have to grow up in this hostile environment; no food, the water is chlorinated, no light..

So it's not impossible. But very unlikely.

But thank you for thinking that. None of us at the plant even considered that possibility.

I bet he got his butt reamed good!

Dare I say "Of course he did. It is the Navy, after all!"
Nahh.. I won't say that.

[Seshat]

I studied Three Mile Island as part of my degree course. Part of what caused the reactor's problems was a poorly designed control panel, and a poorly designed system for recording problems with the panel.

Some of the lights were green in normal operation, and some were red in normal operation. That's bad enough on its own.

But when there's a problem with the panel, they'd put a hanging tag on the problem part. And the tag obscured alerts. Including, IIRC, the alert that signalled that the valve that actually failed, causing the meltdown.

[Emrld]

I am so glad that you added the phrase about that you like frogs . . . .
(says a friend of Knightmare's who drives a car named Kermie)

My first thought was that it had grown in there from tadpole stage . . . but as he grew and created waste it would have set the reading's off then.
Once you realized he was gone did you double check to make sure he didn't return home?

[draggar]

If it was a tree frog they can squash themselves pretty small if they need to. We have them all over here in sough Florida (along with those damn bufo frogs) and I've seen them go into some pretty tight places, including BETWEEN the sliding glass doors, under regular doors, though small holes in windows.

[Knightmare]

Once you realized he was gone did you double check to make sure he didn't return home?

Unfortunately, we can't do that. We can't keep opening the analyzer to see what is actually inside there. That would cause more alarms to go off.

[Emrld]

FYI - Knightmare didn't want to be uncouth - so he didn't type this - but he claims that I want his body - good for him I am female - which is his prefered gender for attraction
Meaning I have his permission to pick on him

[Knightmare]

Well, you know me. Always the gentleman.
And yes, it is true.. She wants my body.