TIFU by dumping water in a sink at PetsMart

TLDR; I dumped water out causing one of the employees to have to redo a bunch of work she was half way done with

I volunteer with a rescue that adopts cats out of a PetsMart. As a volunteer I go in a couple days a week to scoop litter boxes, change out the water dishes, give some canned food & love to the kitties.

Before anyone asks, I only go a couple times a week, but volunteers go in twice daily to make sure all the kitties are well cared for.

As part of the process, we dump out the old water into a pitcher, wipe down the bowls, then put in fresh water from a Brita filter. When we're wrapping up the cleaning we take the pitcher & filter back to the employee area to dump the old water & refill from the sink they have in the back.

The employees recognize us as we're there on regular days/times, so we see each other frequently. On this day when I go into the back, there's one of the PetsMart workers at the sink (which is pretty big) I pull up next to her and give her a greeting as I dump the water out.

She was initially smiling, then her face dropped. She stares then says "Great! Now I have to do all these over again!"

Turns out she was washing dishes from the small animal quarantine area. Animals with known infectious diseases that can't be sold and have to be specially cared for until they recover. Every bowl has to go through a special sterilization process to ensure there's no chance of spreading any diseases. When I dumped the water it can create splashes, which may have contaminated between the "clean" and not clean side even though I poured on the empty side (plus the possibility that the cat water may have something that could be transferred).

I apologized profusely and still feel terrible. She had to dump all the basins and refill with fresh sterilization solution, then go over every piece individually again creating a ton of work for her.

If you read this, as a volunteer I did you wrong! I'm still sorry I caused you work!