Grantee Research Project Results
Community Recreational Water Risk Assessment and Public Outreach
EPA Grant Number: R827063Title: Community Recreational Water Risk Assessment and Public Outreach
Investigators: Biedrzycki, Paul , Corsi, Steve , Bruesch, Mary Ellen , Gradus, M. Stephen , Singh, Ajaib , Gieryn, Doug , Ankel, Elke , MacDonald, Jeff , Weisinger, John , Bagley, Robert
Current Investigators: Biedrzycki, Paul
Institution: City of Milwaukee Health Department
EPA Project Officer: Packard, Benjamin H
Project Period: November 1, 1998 through October 31, 2000
Project Amount: $320,000
RFA: Environmental Monitoring for Public Access and Community Tracking (EMPACT) (1998) RFA Text | Recipients Lists
Research Category: Environmental Statistics , Water , Sustainable and Healthy Communities , Air , Ecological Indicators/Assessment/Restoration
Description:
The City of Milwaukee Health Department and the City of Racine Health Department have formed a consortium with several scientific and community organizations for the purpose of more effectively collecting and disseminating recreational water quality data from several beaches in Milwaukee and Racine to a diverse public. Our project, titled Community Recreational Water Risk Assessment and Public Outreach, will focus on the reporting of E. coli levels to the general public in a time-relevant and meaningful format.
Objectives/Hypothesis:
Our objectives are: to improve documentation and dissemination of environmental data specifically related to health risk associated with the recreational use of public beaches; to improve the type, quantity and quality of environmental data collected at and around public beaches in both Milwaukee and Racine Counties in development of a public health risk model; and to improve coordination and collaboration of environmental data collected between Local Public Health Agencies (LPHAs), other organizations and community stakeholders, and standardize data collection.
Approach:
The City of Milwaukee and the City of Racine will work together to assure that daily water samples are collected at the beaches, and that volunteer monitoring is performed and samples associated with volunteer monitoring are collected. We will also assure that any data to be collected at Environmental Monitoring Stations located at the beaches is being collected and documented. The Workgroup, which is composed of members of the South East Wisconsin Beach (SEWGLB) Consortium and other agencies involved with this project, as well as community stakeholders, will provide guidance to the project. After data is collected, all data will be entered into either the general-access web page or the restricted-access web page. The restricted-access web page will contain data which requires college-level scientific training to understand. All data collected as part of this project will be combined with all similar data from previous years to develop an improved Rainfall Predictive Model for the City of Milwaukee and the City of Racine. Public awareness of health risk and pollution prevention activities will occur through extensive outreach activities, including the volunteer monitoring, collaboration with Cleaner River Project, beach clean-up and other activities.
Expected Results:
We expect that the public will utilize the web pages to make better decisions about health risk associated with swimming at the beaches. The data collected should facilitate improvement of our Rainfall Model as well as help the City of Racine to describe better the influences of rainfall upon its beach to the point of developing its own rainfall model. We expect that by educating high school students and citizens we will enhance awareness and create sustainable pollution prevention efforts and environmental awareness.
Publications and Presentations:
Publications have been submitted on this project: View all 1 publications for this projectSupplemental Keywords:
EMPACT, recreational water quality, E. coli, Chemiluminescence, community-based environmental groups, rainfall-based predictive risk model., Scientific Discipline, Geographic Area, Ecosystem Protection/Environmental Exposure & Risk, Hydrology, Environmental Chemistry, State, Monitoring/Modeling, Environmental Monitoring, E. coli monitoring, rainfall model, time-relevant monitoring, web site development, recreational water, Wisconsin (WI), water quality, real-time monitoringProgress and Final Reports:
The perspectives, information and conclusions conveyed in research project abstracts, progress reports, final reports, journal abstracts and journal publications convey the viewpoints of the principal investigator and may not represent the views and policies of ORD and EPA. Conclusions drawn by the principal investigators have not been reviewed by the Agency.