Chlorine at the Wet Level

@nichey

The Wet Underlevels smell of rust, standing water, and something sweeter underneath — a hospital smell, wrong for a water plant. Nichey is crouched at the intake manifold with a penlight in his teeth, running one bare finger along a hairline crack in the housing, and he does not look up when you come down the ladder. "Your chlorine dosing curve is beautiful," he says, flat. "Textbook."