green river

A flow of bright green water is making its way down the Millrace to the Willamette River. Nope, it's not a Duck related publicity stunt. It's a pipe break. According to the UO's press release:

Pipe break releases green dye into Millrace

At approximately 2 p.m. today, the University of Oregon's central power station was alerted to a failure of a temporary chilled water line supplying cooling to a nearby UO laboratory facility. When the line gave way, it released several hundred gallons of chemically treated chilled water into a utility tunnel. That water was pumped into the Millrace in accordance with the UO’s standard tunnel flood control process.

The water in the burst pipe had been treated with a green dye, which allows facilities staff to locate and repair leaks. While the dye is used at a very low concentration, it does impart a bright green color to the water. This dye is non-toxic and there is no danger of chemical hazard involved in this inadvertent release. In addition to the dye, the chilled water included a chemical called molybdate, which is also non-toxic and is used to prevent pipe fouling and corrosion.

The University of Oregon has activated a pump to increase the flow of water into the Millrace. This should help dilute the dye before it reaches the Willamette River.

If anyone's out there with a camera, I'd like to see a photo and see how this compares to the City of Chicago's annual dyeing of the Chicago River green for St. Patrick's day.

I suspect the R-G and other news sources will be all over this exciting green river story. (I mean c'mon the Millrace is green, that's well, interesting. Then again, so is green, biodegradable graduation gear, I suppose.) But if not, we'll start delving into if molybdate is really non-toxic to fish, and what they heck they use to turn water green — fluorescein was what they used to use on the Chicago River til enviros complained — and exactly what in the lab needed to be cooled down anyway...

UPDATE: The UO says its getting back to me on my questions…

The R-G is on the story, but they're slicker than I am and made the press release sound more like they've got actual news, as opposed to admittng to unanswered why is the water green questions like me.