Assistant plant operator Alan
Nichols holds a container within which is the goldfish that was found alive and rescued at the Shelburne Falls Wastewater
treatment plant at Gardner Falls.
Goldfish survives roller coaster
ride through sewer
system
By
DIANE BRONCACCIO
Recorder Staff
SHELBURNE FALLS - If
cats have nine lives, how many do goldfish
have?Dead goldfish are not an
uncommon sight for workers at the Shelburne Falls Wastewater Treatment Plant,
because so many pet fish
are given a "flushing funeral" after they die. But a live goldfish coming through the sewage, twitching
against the screen that
strains
out larger objects, was a first for wastewater treatment plant operator
Alan Nichols. Nichols rescued the
goldfish last Thursday, which Buckland Town Hall staff have
since nicknamed "Poopsie." "He saved
itfrom the fate of dying among the debris," said
Chief Operator Daniel Fleuriel. "He put it in a bucket of
cleaner water, and it revived."
Fleuriel said the fish was found within two feet of where the raw sewage
comes into the plant.
"If it had gone past this part (of the treatment plant), it would not have survived
the
next part of the process," he said. For now, Poopsie is living in a
white plastic pail full of water, with an
aquarium aerator on top of it, and seems to be flourishing on a diet of
nemitode worms found at the base
ofsome mosses growing at the treatment plant. "They only last about 5
seconds in the tank," Fleuriel says of the worms given to the fish. Fleuriel said plant workers don't know
whether someone intentionally flushed
the 3-inchlong goldfish or whether it was an accident, perhaps done by
some child. "We figured out it
would have come from the Buckland side of the village," he
said. "It would have been sent down the pipe
on Wednesday. If they
wanted it back, we would welcome giving it back. If
not, we'll find a new home for
it." "It's in very good health for it's been through," Fleuriel
added.
