Title:
High Density Lagrangian Sampling for Pathogen Source Identification
High Density Lagrangian Sampling for Pathogen Source Identification
Author(s)
Rosenquist, Shawn E.
Moak, Jason
Flite, Oscar P.
Moak, Jason
Flite, Oscar P.
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Abstract
In compliance to the Clean Water Act, each US state compiles a list of water bodies not meeting regulatory criteria. The most common impairment in US water bodies is elevated pathogens measured by fecal indicator bacteria (FIB). Reasons for this prevalence probably include the true magnitude of pathogen contamination, monitoring bias from human health concern, inaccuracy of FIB monitoring compared to other parameters, and difficulty estimating background condition. In practice, identification and citation of impairment is extensive, while development of plans that identify the source with certainty and implement high probability remediation lags behind. The difficulty in confidently identifying sources of impairment is an impediment to the protection of water bodies and increases the cost of remediation due to the need for casting a wider net of lower probability solutions. With a high proportion of resources directed to pathogen contamination, it is important to confidently identify sources. Increased confidence will improve efficacy of remediation and ability to secure funding. To achieve these objectives, we designed a study method to investigate Rocky Creek, a pathogen impaired stream in Augusta, GA. This method applied a Lagrangian FIB sampling approach to reduce confounding variability and a high sampling density to identify high contribution watershed areas. We then layered typical pathogen sources (e.g. septic, pet waste, sewer, wildlife) and alternative sources (e.g. sediment, instream growth) along with their GIS data over the FIB data. In this way, we were able to target remediation efforts on the convergence of sources and regions and thereby decrease the scale of remediation efforts.
Sponsor
Sponsored by: Georgia Environmental Protection Division; U.S. Department of Agriculture, Natural Resources Conservation Service; Georgia Institute of Technology, Georgia Water Resources Institute; The University of Georgia, Water Resources Faculty.
Date Issued
2013-04
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Text
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Proceedings