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Pollution Source-Targeted Water Safety Management: Characterization of Diffuse Human Fecal Pollution Sources with Land Use Information, Strategic Water Sampling, and Quantitative Real-Time PCR
Citation:
Shanks, O., L. Peed, C. Kelty, M. Sivaganesan, AND C. Nietch. Pollution Source-Targeted Water Safety Management: Characterization of Diffuse Human Fecal Pollution Sources with Land Use Information, Strategic Water Sampling, and Quantitative Real-Time PCR. Chapter 5, Global Water Pathogens Project. Michigan State University Press, East Lansing, MI, , 1-7, (2019). https://doi.org/10.14321/waterpathogens.83
Impact/Purpose:
The discharge of untreated human fecal pollution from diffuse sources can occur through a wide variety of mechanisms such as leaky or damaged sewer lines, faulty septic systems, illicit waste disposal, and sewer overflows. When present, human fecal waste can pose a serious public health risk and can lead to severe economic burdens, especially in communities that rely on clean and safe water. In the United States, fecal pollution is the number one biological contaminant in surface waters with impaired sites in every state. Fecal pollution can originate from numerous animal sources such as human, agricultural, and wildlife groups making it challenging for local water quality managers to mitigate and prevent contamination events, especially from diffuse sources. In response to this nationwide need, the U.S. EPA ORD maintains an active research program to develop, validate, and implement tools to characterize fecal pollution sources in environmental waters. This book chapter summarizes a recent field investigation servings as an examples on the implementation of molecular microbial source tracking tools for the UNESCO Global Water Pathogens Project effort. This effort was conducted under the EPA Research Action Plan, SSWR project 3.02.
Description:
The discharge of untreated human fecal pollution from diffuse sources can pose a serious public health risk in recreational, drinking source, irrigation, and aquaculture waters. Diffuse human fecal pollution can originate from a variety of sources such as leaky or damaged sewer lines, faulty septic systems, and illicit waste disposal. Evidence-based water safety management planning for diffuse fecal pollution typically relies on measurements of general fecal indicator bacteria (FIB), namely E. coli and enterococci providing an estimate of the concentration from all sources present in an area of interest. Because many impaired waters are polluted by more than one source (e.g. sewage, agricultural waste, wildlife, etc.) and FIB cannot discriminate between pollution types, safety planning can be limited when relying solely on FIB measurements. Microbial source tracking (MST) technologies can help discriminate between pollution sources to identify diffuse human fecal pollution. In this case study, human-associated MST quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR) methods were combined with low-order stream sampling, precipitation information, and a high-resolution land use-based geographic information system (GIS) mapping to characterize trends in human fecal pollution diffuse sources on a watershed scale (Peed et al. 2011).
