Carboys in Public Places

For some of my experiments I need water from Portage Bay. Portage Bay water is most special because it’s close to my lab. But it’s also special because it’s natural water and loaded up with nutrients and minerals that our super-pure lab water no longer has. Nutrients help me grow bacteria for my experiments. They also unfortunately cause algal blooms in natural waters and generally turn beautiful and healthy lakes into dirty and gross lakes. There are two reasons why Portage Bay has so much bacteria and nutrient goodness. First, there’s a combined sewer overflow, right here, a 20 minute walk from my lab. Combined sewer overflow is a euphemism for “poop in your beautiful lake,” or mixing of wastewater and recreational (or even drinking) waters. But it’s highly regulated. We’re not allowed to have more than one combined sewer overflow per year in Seattle. If you have a lot of faith, we’re fine. You can also use your phosphorus-free soaps and hope for the best. The real nutrient contributors are those Canadian geese (or Canada geese, if you prefer). Mike calls them Public Enemy Number One. They eat phosphorus (we all do, we need it to be alive and grow more cells), and then they poop it into Portage Bay. A lake can handle some phosphorus poop, but those geese are EVERYWHERE. And they’re enormous.

Back to the carboys: I needed 15 liters of water from Portage Bay for this week’s experiments. A carboy is like a giant milk jug. As it turns out, you get a lot of attention if you carry a GIANT milk jug down Brooklyn Ave. I got comment after comment on my way down: “they make smaller water bottles, ya know.” It almost felt like a little performance: My Carboy and Me. The real community interaction came after filling up the carboy and trying to carry it back to the lab. Fifteen liters of water works out to be pretty heavy. I tried switching hands, dragging my carboy, rolling it—is this included in scientific research? I was publicly struggling. I got several offers for help from strong-looking men. At the time, I turned them down. But today, my arms are still sore. Next time, strong men: I’m going to take you up on any offers for carboy-carrying help. Get ready for some heavy lifting and some enterococci talk as we walk back to the lab!