Imagine taking a nap, and you hear some strange sounds coming from outside that sound like something from an extraterrestrial spacecraft. How would you react? Well, in downtown Salt Lake City, residents have reportedly heard strange music and sounds. They weren’t quite sure, at first, what was causing the eerie sounds; however, some have speculated that it might be coming from an extraterrestrial being.
Probably not.
Thanks to social media, all questions can be answered on the spot.
Speaking to KSLTV, Rosemary Olsen, a musician and resident of the area, said she heard what sounded like a B augmented chord several times outside her window. Though strange, she enjoyed the sounds.
Olsen recorded the sounds and posted the audio on the neighborhood app, Nextdoor, where others commented that they heard the same sounds. One listener made a joke about it, saying it was his band and they were supposed to have played a minor 7th but blew it.
All the conspiracy theories and speculations about aliens were put to rest by the Department of Public Utilities in Salt Lake City. They say the music is from the Sewer Rapid Assessment Tool (SL-RAT), affectionately nicknamed the Sewer Rat.
The city has been using the SL-RAT technology since 2015. The SL-RAT is a portable onsite assessment tool used to quickly identify any blockages in gravity-fed sewers. It can provide assessments in less than three minutes by sending signals from one end of the hole to the other, and when the volume of the signal changes, it indicates a blockage in the pipe.
The tool has two parts, a transmitter and a receiver. The transmitter transmits sounds through the pipe and the receiver listens for the sounds, processes them, and makes an assessment. A simple analogy is a transmitter yelling down the pipe, and the receiver has the microphone, and the capabilities to process the signal by listening and interpreting the sounds.
Steve Terry, a waste collection manager, explained the work of the SL-RAT, saying that the transmitter sends the tone and the receiver listens, and then depending on how open or blocked the pipe is, it will assign a score. Each sewer line is given a rating and a numerical score which indicate if the pipes need to be cleaned.
The Director of Public Utilities, Laura Briefer, said that the SL-RAT is a great, environmentally friendly way to do the job while keeping workers out of dirty sewers. She said some things known to clog sewers include flushable wipes, oil and grease.
According to Briefer, traditional sewer line assessments need a considerable amount of water, time, and energy for the assessments to be accurate and efficient, and the new technology reduces both of those things significantly.
Now you know everything you ever wanted to know about sewer technology. Or more than you wanted to know.
Olsen has become a fan of the Sewer Rat despite the noise it emits, saying that the sounds are ethereal and beautiful. But she is curious about why the technology developers used an augmented chord.
Some might think that any added “noise” to downtown Salt Lake City is not welcome. Some may be concerned about the jobs that are lost due to the new technology.
Laura Briefer invited residents to report to the department about what they hear, adding that people do not often recognize what goes on behind the scenes and underground.