Fecal indicator bacteria (FIB) have long been used as a marker of fecal pollution in surface waters subject to point source and non-point source discharges of treated or untreated human waste. In this paper, we set out to determine the source(s) of elevated FIB concentrations in Cucamonga Creek, a concrete-lined urban stream in southern California. Flow in the creek consists primarily of treate...

Stormwater runoff can transport a variety of pollutants including heavy metals, excess nutrients, sediments, trash, etc. Several studies dating back to the 1970s have shown that a number of human pathogens are often present in stormwater and can lead to serious health risks. The resulting health and economic impacts can be significant since the presence of elevated concentrations of microorgani...

A USGS scientist collects data from an automated sampling system moored in Malibu Lagoon (July 2009). Photograph by John Izbicki, USGS. Each year, over 550 million people visit California’s public beaches. To protect beach-goers from exposure to waterborne disease, California state law requires water-quality monitoring for fecal indicator bacteria (FIB), such as enterococci and Escherichia coli...

Assessing the potential threat of fecal contamination in surface water often depends on model forecasts which assume that fecal indicator bacteria (FIB, a proxy for the concentration of pathogens found in fecal contamination from warm-blooded animals) are lost or removed from the water column at a certain rate (often referred to as an "inactivation" rate). In efforts to reduce human health risk...

BACKGROUND The aim of present work was to assess the concentration levels as well as vertical distribution of indicator bacteria including total coliform, fecal coliform, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Heterotrophic Plate Count (HPC) in the marine environment (seawater and coastal sediments) and evaluate the correlation between indicator bacteria and some physicochemical parameters of surface sedi...

Concentrations of thermotolerant coliform bacteria, presumptive E. coll, and presumptive fecal streptococci were determined from ditches, brooks, and natural ponds in six agricultural areas and 22 uninhabited pristine areas in southern Finland in the summer of 1987. For comparison, the same fecal indicators were enumerated from the effluents of three wastewater t eatment plants. The objective w...

A sewer main serving a large municipal wastewater system ruptured, discharging approximately 3,000,000 gallons (11,355,000 L) of raw human sewage into a multi-branched tidal creek estuary along the US East Coast. The biochemical oxygen demand caused severe hypoxia in the system, causing a large fish kill. The sewage load led to high fecal coliform bacteria concentrations in the creek (maximum o...

a new medium, termed ecol was developed for the detection and enumeration of e. coli. the selective properties of ecol medium for the detection of e.coli from mixed culture in wastewater was tested and compared with conventional coliform media at 37°c and 44°c. results clearly showed that ecol medium was enable to direct confirmation of e.coli to be carried out by the indole reaction. the resul...

Recharge and contamination of karst aquifers often occur via the unsaturated zone, but the functioning of this zone has not yet been fully understood. Therefore, irrigation and tracer experiments, along with monitoring of rainfall events, were used to examine water percolation and the transport of solutes, particles, and fecal bacteria between the land surface and a water outlet into a shallow ...