No, if mussels feel the toxin, the mussels won't shut down the water supply in Warsaw – but they help monitor
claim:
Warsaw, Poland, uses eight mussels to detect pollutants and automatically shuts down water supply in cities when there is too much toxicity.
grade:
Rating: Mixture
It's true:
The Warsaw Water Plant does use eight mussels to monitor water quality and trigger alarms if potential pollution is found.
What is wrong:
It is not true that mussels automatically shut down the city's water supply. When the mussel's shell action triggers an alarm, human experts conduct further testing before taking any action.
context:
The mussels are just part of the Warsaw water monitoring system and never cause alarms. The alarm will only be activated if six out of eight mussels remain for more than four minutes and close over 25% on average.
For years, rumors spread online, claiming that the Polish capital Warsaw used mussels to automatically shut down the city's water supply, and if the pollution level was too high, it used mussels to shut down the city's water supply.
“The city of Warsaw in Poland uses eight mussels and heat-adhesively stick sensors to the shells to monitor and automatically turn off the city's water supply if shellfish are selected like this”, read a Reddit post on the topic.
Similar claims have spread across other social media platforms such as Thread, Instagram, Facebook, Bluesky and X, with some of the posts claiming that the system will be shut down if four of the eight mussels shut down the shells.
In short, while the Warsaw water plant does use mussels to monitor water quality, it is wrong to claim that mussels can automatically shut down water supply in cities. The alarm from the system will only be triggered if one in eight of the mussels are closed for more than four minutes and the average shell closure is over 25%. Even then, the mussels do not turn off the water supply directly, but instead trigger an alarm for further testing.
Since the biosurveillance system was introduced in 2009, the mussels never activated the alarm. In addition, mussels are just part of Warsaw's wider water monitoring system, which also includes freshwater fish that provide continuous water quality assessments, laboratory tests and electronic sensors.
Mussels are part of Warsaw Biological monitoring system
Some social media posts mistakenly refer to mussels as “clams.” Warsaw water plant uses swollen river mussels (Unio tumidus), not clams, are used for biological monitoring.
According to Warsaw Water Plant spokesman Jolanta Maliszewska, the mussels have been part of the city's water quality monitoring system since 2009. Biomonitoring relies on bioguidants who are highly sensitive to pollutants to detect environmental pollution. this Unio tumidus Mussels are highly sensitive to water pollution and help monitor the water quality of the Vistula River and the Zegrzyński Lake.
After two weeks of adaptation, mussels calibrate the mussels by measuring their natural shell openings for accurate monitoring. Equipped with sensors, the mussels are placed in circulation tanks, where the movement of their shells is continuously monitored. Although they can live for decades, those working on the water in Warsaw returned it to their hometown of Wielkopolska Lake after three months.
When will the alarm be issued?
Maliszewska tells us that if one in eight of the mussels shut off the shell for more than four minutes and the opening of the average shell drops below 25%, the alarm is triggered. In this case, both the visual alarms on the monitor and the audible alarms inform the employee to take action.
She also stressed that only sudden collective enclosure of mussels can be seen as a stress response. If the water quality changes suddenly, the mussels quickly close the shell, triggering an alarm on the system. But the mussels do not shut down the water supply directly, but rather “a warning system.”
“Mussels are a support. But mussel-based biomonitoring is not an automatic system that cuts off drinking water. It is also worth remembering that it goes through before the water reaches the consumer Multi-stagehigh performance therapy. Maliszewska stressed that not every deterioration in the quality of the water inlet forces the stop to drink water.
Mussels are not the only way to test water
In addition to mussels, some freshwater fish help monitor water quality in Warsaw water – but water monitoring is not limited to biological. A team of experienced laboratory technicians using advanced analytical equipment is also constantly testing the water quality in Warsaw. Online electronic devices also track key parameters in real time at each treatment stage.
“Maliszewska said. In water quality control, we use mussels more as support for humans and machines. In water quality control, our lab plays a lot of water tests: physicochemistry or microbiology. Tests were performed at each stage of treatment, as well as in the network and in the network. ”
The origin of the photo
Images often shared in posts on this topic are from Julia Pelka’s documentary Fat Kathy, which describes the role of mussels in the Warsaw water monitoring system (see at 8:02 Mark). Fat Kathy is the Polish “GrubaKaśka” name of the key water intake facility on the Vesta River.
The movie is available on YouTube and is described as “Philosophical papers on dependence on human nature and the world around them. ” You can watch here:
In the past, we have studied a statement that adult oysters can filter more than 50 gallons of water in 24 hours.
Source:
– Youtube. Visited on March 6, 2025.
GrubaKaśka|Movie| 2018. www.filmweb.pl, visited on March 6, 2025.
“ grubakaśka” pracuje dla warszawy OD 50 lat•mpwik. Visited on March 6, 2025.
Kasprak, Alex. “Can 1 adult oyster filter 50 gallons of water in 24 hours?” Snopes, February 4, 2025, https://www.snopes.com//fact-check/water-yoyster-filter/.
Małże I ryby testerami wody•mpwik. Visited on March 6, 2025.
Warszawska Kranówka – Jak Czytać Wyniki Adańmpwik? •mpwik. Visited on March 6, 2025.
