Re: Internet of Shit
I think the probable result, if it hadn't been caught would be the entire stock of NaOH being emptied into the supply, and swiftly running out. Because it's nasty corrosive stuff, they're not going to be having a huge mountain of the stuff, and they'll probably only have enough for a week or month at a time. The mechanism for pumping it into the water supply probably wouldn't have been capable of pumping 10,000 at times the normal rate, and I'd be amazed if there aren't also sensors to check the resulting pH downstream, with alarms and cut-offs. It's not like such systems could be prone to failure of a more prosaic nature (such as mechanical), and would therefore have fail-safes.
The net result, if it hadn't been noticed would probably have been the dumping of a few hundred litres of NaOH solution into a processing tank, and then the pump shutting off as it tries to pump air, followed by another pump shutting off when that gets a short distance downstream, a cut-over to a secondary system and a very brief dip in the town's water pressure.
The biggest risk would probably be from the fact that diluting NaOH is exothermic, and thus you'd potentially end up with a whole load of dilute warm NaOH to dispose of, and a load of processing infrastructure that needs a good scrub down before it can be brought back online.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
