Enterococci Monitoring
Sent: Tuesday, January 17, 2006 4:24 PM
To: Volunteer water monitoring
Subject: [volmonitor] enterococci, anyone?
Dear friends,
I would be interested in hearing from anyone who is using enterococci as
an
indicator species for monitoring ambient water (including recreational
waters). What analytical method are you using? Is the analysis done by
volunteers, by program staff, or at an outside laboratory?
Thanks a lot!
Ellie
Eleanor Ely
Editor, The Volunteer Monitor Newsletter
50 Benton Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94112
415-334-2284
ellieely@earthlink.net
The Volunteer Monitor is available online at
Responses
Sent: Wednesday, January 18, 2006 5:55 AM
To: ellieely@earthlink.net
Subject: RE: volmonitor digest: January 17, 2006
Hello Ellie,
I was forwarded your message by our Volunteer Lake Assessment Program
Coordinator. I coordinate New Hampshire's Beach Inspection Program.
Currently, we use Enterococci as our recreational water standard for
marine waters. We use EPA's 24 hour Method 1600 for Enterococci. This
is also a membrane filtration method. See the link below.
Previously, we employed the 48 hour method. We receive funding from EPA
based on the Beaches Environmental Assessment and Health Act (BEACH)
Grants. Due to the funding and quality assurance requirements, we now
use the 24 hour method mentioned above.
We also have purchased the IDEXX Enterolert equipment. The problem we
have is ordering media and assuring the media will be delivered on time.
Our QAPP will soon go back for review so we have the option of using
IDEXX when we are waiting for media delivery. Right now, we are not
making an official switch to the IDEXX method.
Our standard operating procedure for the analysis of Enterococci
includes the 48 and 24 hour methods, as well as the IDEXX method. The
IDEXX Enterolert instruction brochure and MPN chart are referenced in
the SOP. I do not conduct the analyses myself, so I'm not sure if our
laboratory made modifications to the method. We use our in-house state
laboratory for all analyses. They are NELAP certified. We do not use
volunteers for analysis, but do use volunteers for sample collection.
As I mentioned previously, we receive BEACH Act grant funding. Many
states use Enterococci as indicators for recreational waters. You may
want to contact the Grant Coordinators or Regional Coordinators. See
the link below:
I hope this has been helpful. If you have additional questions, please
let me know.
Thank you,
Sara
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sara Sumner
Beach Program
New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services
Watershed Management Bureau
29 Hazen Dr., PO Box 95
Concord, NH 03302-0095
Phone: 603-271-8803
Fax: 603-271-7894
ssumner@des.state.nh.us
Subject: RE: enterococci, anyone?
From: "URI Watershed Watch" <uriww@etal.uri.edu>
Date: Tue, 17 Jan 2006 17:33:00 -0500
X-Message-Number: 2
We have been running enterococci analyses for a couple of years in the
URI Watershed Watch laboratories on volunteer collected samples using
Standard Method 9230 C - Membrane filtration for members of the enterococci. This
requires a 48 hour incubation, in comparison to our membrane filtration
for fecal coliform and E. coli, which leads to scheduling and reporting. In
addition as many of these samples have also been analyzed for fecal
coliform and E.coli, it has been interesting figuring how to answer the question
"is it safe to swim in my lake/river/beach?" Often that has depended on
which indicator you wanted to use - ugh!
We just purchased an IDEXX sealer and accessories, and are about to
embark on the Rhode Island Department of Health preferred method Enterolert
method, which promises reduced labor along with only a 24 hour incubation, but
will also mean amending our laboratory quality assurance project plan
(another ugh!)
I am very interested in the experiences of others with the IDEXX system
- and particularly interested in receiving copies of SOPs for those
methods.
Thanks, Elizabeth Herron
Program Coordinator
URI Watershed Watch
Phone: 401-874-4552
Fax: 401-874-4561
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Updated
Tuesday, 07-Oct-2008 17:10:50 CDT
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