I've heard of having a canary in the mine shaft to test air quality (about 100 years ago), but this is ridiculous.
"Currently, wastewater is held at the plant. No one knows if it is safe to release into the city's waterways or if it needs further treatment first. "
Excuse me? "No one knows??" Don't they have a lab for heaven's sake? With today's sensitive testing equipment and gas chromatography - you should be able to do some pretty simple tests to determine water quality and safety besides waiting for a goldfish to go belly up. This just seems really backward. My advice? Drink bottled water.
