Evaluating Temporal Variability in Bacterial Indicator Samples for an Urban Watershed
Publication: Journal of Environmental Engineering
Volume 135, Issue 12
Abstract
Temporal variability in water quality sampling can lead to under or overestimation of pollution. More frequent sampling during times of expected high variability can reduce temporal bias. However, bacterial indicator measurements require manual sampling and time-intensive and expensive laboratory analysis. Thus, methods to assess the effect of temporal variability would be useful. In this work, fecal coliform and E. coli samples were taken weekly during the recreational season at 25 sites in an urban watershed. The data were categorized into wet versus dry days, and upper versus lower watershed, and the geometric means and geometric standard deviations of various five-sample data sets were analyzed to determine if sample data selection would result in different stream classifications. Results indicate if the bacterial indicator samples are near the regulated limits for water contact recreational use, temporal bias could sway impairment classification decisions. To reduce the temporal bias, sampling data submitted for stream classification should include several sampling groups within the recreational season, particularly for sites near point sources of pollution or with low fecal indicator contamination.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
The writers thank the volunteers who collected the samples, the Pine Creek Watershed Coalition, the PA Department of Environmental Protection, the Allegheny County Sanitary Authority (ALCOSAN) and the Three Rivers Wet Weather Demonstration Project (3 RWW), for providing the data that made this work possible. This work was funded by 3 RWW and WaterQUEST at Carnegie Mellon University.
References
3 Rivers Wet Weather. (2008). “Calibrated radar rainfall data.” ⟨http://web.3riverswethweather.org⟩ (Feb. 2008).
American Public Health Association, American Water Works Association, and Water Environment Federation. (1999). Standard methods for the examination of water and wastewater, American Public Health Association, Washington, D.C.
Bonde, G. J. (1966). “Bacteriological methods for estimation of water pollution.” Health Lab. Sci., 3(2), 124–128.
Borsuk, M. E., Stow, C. A., and Reckhow, K. H. (2002). “Predicting the frequency of water quality standard violations: A probabilistic approach for TMDL development.” Environ. Sci. Technol., 36(10), 2109–2115.
Cabelli, V. J. (1983). “Health effects criteria for marine recreational waters.” Rep. No. EPA-600/1-80-031, U.S. EPA, Cincinnati, Ohio.
Dufour, A. P. (1984). “Health effects criteria for fresh recreational waters.” Rep. No. EPA-600/1-84-004, U.S. EPA, Cincinnati, Ohio.
ESRI. (2005). ArcGIS 9, ESRI Inc., Redlands, Calif.
ESRI. (2007). “ArcGIS 9.2 desktop help high/low clustering (Getis0Ord General G) (spatial statistics).” ⟨webhelp.esri.com/arcgisdesktop/9.2/index.cfm?TopicName=High/Low_Clustering_(Getis-Ord_General_G)_(Spatial_Statistics)⟩ (June 23, 2008).
Fleisher, J. M., Kay, D., Salmon, R. L., Jones, F., Wyer, M. D., and Godfree, A. F. (1996). “Marine waters contaminated with domestic sewage: Nonenteric illnesses associated with bather exposure in the United Kingdom.” Am. J. Public Health, 86(9), 1228–1234.
Glassmeyer, S. T., et al. (2005). “Transport of chemical and microbial compounds from known wastewater discharges: Potential for use as indicators of human fecal contamination.” Environ. Sci. Technol., 39(14), 5157–5169.
Gronewold, A. D., Borsuk, M. E., Wolpert, R. L., and Reckhow, K. H. (2008). “An assessment of fecal indicator bacteria-based water quality standards.” Environ. Sci. Technol., 42(13), 4676–4682.
Guth, S. (2006). “Elementary statistics online resource website.” ⟨http://www.mtsac.edu/~sguth/stats/index.htm⟩ (March 23, 2009).
Helsel, D. R. (1995). “Design of a relational water-quality assessment program.” Proc., 1995 Proc. of the Biometrics Section of the American Statistical Association, American Statistical Association, Washington, D.C.
Isovitsch, S. L., and VanBriesen, J. M. (2008). “Sensor placement and optimization criteria dependencies in a water distribution system.” J. Water Resour. Plann. Manage., 134(2), 186–196.
Jenson, S. K., and Domingue, J. O. (1988). “Extracting topographic structure from digital elevation data for geographic information-system analysis.” Photogramm. Eng. Remote Sens., 54(11), 1593–1600.
Lee, B. H., and Deininger, R. A. (1992). “Optimal location of monitoring stations in water distribution systems.” J. Environ. Eng., 118(1), 4–16.
Lee, J., and Wong, D. (2000). “Modeling spatial structure of residential development with ArcView GIS.” Proc., 20th Annual ESRI Int. User Conf., ESRI, Redlands, Calif.
Mendoza, J., Botsford, J., Hernandez, J., Montoya, A., Saenz, R., Valles, A., Vazquez, A., Alvarez, M., (2004). “Microbial contamination and chemical toxicity of the Rio Grande.” BMC Microbiol., 4(17), 1–16.
Moran, P. A. P. (1950). “Notes on continuous stochastic phenomena.” Biometrika, 37(1–2), 17–23.
PA Dept. of Environmental Protection. (2007). “Assessment and listing methodology for integrated water quality monitoring and assessment reporting.” Rep. Prepared for PA Dept. of Environmental Protection, Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, Harrisburg, Pa.
PA Dept. of Environmental Protection. (2008). “2008 Pennsylvania integrated water quality monitoring and assessment report—Clean Water Act Section 305(b) report and 303(d) list.” Rep. Prepared for PA Dept. of Environmental Protection, Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, Harrisburg, Pa.
Parrish, J., Parkinson, J., and Ramseth, B. (2005). Advanced analysis with ArcGIS, ESRI, Redlands, Calif.
Penn State Institutes of Energy and the Environment. (2008). “Pennsylvania spatial data access (PASDA).” ⟨www.pasda.psu.edu⟩ (Jan. 11, 2008).
Pontius, F. W. (2000). “Environmental justice and drinking water regulations.” J. Am. Water Works Assoc., 92(3), 14, 16, 18, 20, 104.
Pruss, A. (1998). “Review of epidemiological studies on health effects from exposure to recreational water.” Int. J. Epidemiol., 27(1), 1–9.
Rey, S. J. (2001). “Spatial empirics for economic growth and convergence.” Geogr. Anal., 33(3), 195–214.
Simcox, A. C., and Whittemore, R. C. (2004). “Environmental index for assessing spatial bias in watershed sampling networks.” J. Environ. Eng., 130(6), 622–630.
Solo-Gabriele, H. M., Wolfert, M. A., Desmarais, T. R., and Palmer, C. J. (2000). “Sources of Escherichia coli in a coastal subtropical environment.” Appl. Environ. Microbiol., 66(1), 230–237.
U.S. EPA. (1986). “Ambient water quality criteria for bacteria.” Rep. No. EPA-440/5-84-002, Office of Water Regulations and Standards, Washington, D.C.
U.S. EPA. (2002). “Method 1103.1: Escherichia coli (E. coli) in water by membrane filtration using membrane-thermotolerant Escherichia coli Agar (mTEC).” Rep. No. EPA-821-R-02-020, Office of Water, Washington, D.C.
U.S. EPA. (2003). “Bacterial water quality standards for recreational waters (freshwater and marine waters) status report.” Rep. No. EPA-823-R-03-008, Office of Water, Washington, D.C.
U.S. EPA. (2007a). “Report of the experts scientific workshop on critical research needs for the development of new or revised recreational water quality criteria.” Rep. No. EPA-823-R-07-006, Office of Water, Washington, D.C.
U.S. EPA. (2007b). “Critical path science plan for the development of new or revised recreational water quality criteria.” Rep. No. EPA-823-R-08-002, Office of Water, Washington, D.C.
Wymer, L. J., and Wade, T. J. (2007). “The lognormal distribution and use of the geometric mean and the arithmetic mean in recreational water quality measurement.” Statistical framework for recreational water quality criteria and monitoring, L. J. Wymer, ed., Wiley, New York.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Environmental Engineering
Volume 135 • Issue 12 • December 2009
Pages: 1294 - 1303
Copyright
© 2009 ASCE.
History
Received: Sep 18, 2008
Accepted: May 11, 2009
Published online: May 13, 2009
Published in print: Dec 2009
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.