Volunteer monitoring of E. coli in streams of the upper Midwestern United States: a comparison of methods

Abstract

Fecal contamination of water is a public health concern for those using the water for drinking or recreation. The EPA recommends using Escherichia coli to evaluate recreational freshwaters for fecal contamination. With limited resources available, states have recently focused on training volunteers to expand data collection and resource assessment. Several bacteria testing methods are available for use by the public; however, few studies have comprehensively evaluated their use by volunteers. This study evaluated two E. coli monitoring methods used by volunteers: Coliscan Easygel® and 3M(TM) Petrifilm(TM), incubated for 24 and 48 hours. The methods were assessed to determine how closely each matched results with EPA-approved laboratory analyses. Analysis of covariance results indicated that when used by volunteers to monitor surface water, 3M(TM) Petrifilm(TM) results were more similar to laboratory analyses than Coliscan Easygel®. Both test methods had similar overall accuracy of predicting if a sample exceeded or fell below the 235 cfu/100 mL EPA body contact standard for recreational surface waters. Two-thirds of volunteers preferred 3M(TM) Petrifilm(TM).

Growing Pains of Crowdsourced Stream Stage Monitoring Using Mobile Phones: The Development of CrowdHydrology

“…There is always the question of accuracy of the participants' data. Numerous comparison studies of volunteer vs. professional water resources data suggest that volunteer data are generally comparable to professional data for chemical (Obrecht et al, 1998;Loperfido et al, 2010), physical (Rodrigues and Castro, 2008), and biological (Fore et al, 2001;Vail et al, 2003;Gowan et al, 2007;Stepenuck et al, 2011) monitoring. Notably, in all of these studies, volunteers were trained to carry out the monitoring in which they were engaged.…”

Abundance and environmental drivers of anthropogenic litter on 5 Lake Michigan beaches: A study facilitated by citizen science data collection

“…Fecal coliform and Escherichia coli colony-forming units (CFU) were measured using Petrifilm™ (3 M, St. Paul, MN, USA). Petrifilm has been used elsewhere to provide estimates of fecal coliform and E. coli (Senini et al, 1997;Stepenuck et al, 2011). Volunteers wade to a depth of 0.5 m and collect surface water in a sterile whirl-pak (Nasco, Ft. Atksinson, WI, USA) while wearing nitrile gloves.…”

Capacity building in stakeholders around Detroit River fish consumption advisory issues

“…Aspects of aquatic ecosystems that have been monitored by participants in these partnerships include invertebrate communities (Nerbonne and Nelson 2004), microbial indicator species (Stepenuck et al 2011), surface water hydrology (Turner and Richter 2011), and water clarity (Chipman et al 2004). The quality of environmental data collected by volunteers has been evaluated several times (e.g., Fore et al 2001, Nerbonne et al 2008, Latimore and Steen 2014.…”