Beach Closings

Development and Application of Molecular-Based Methods for Identifying Sources of Fecal Pollution at Lake Michigan Beaches.  Beach closings in the Great Lakes Region have attracted the attention of public health officials, regulatory agencies, water resource managers, and state legislators.  High levels of the fecal indicator bacteria Escherichia coli (E. coli) have been found in the shallow waters of beaches.  Previous work in our laboratory has demonstrated that the majority of the contamination originates from the shoreline.  The focus of this work is to develop and validate genetic markers for human and non-human sources of fecal pollution, and integrate these measures into hydrodynamic models of the beach area.

Bradford Beach Revitalization Project.  In collaboration with Miller-Coors, Milwaukee County Parks and Public Works, the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District, and other agencies, our laboratory is assessing the effectiveness of different best management practices as they are implemented at Bradford Beach.  The overall goal of this project is to improve the beach ecosystem and obtain a Blue Wave Certification.

Urban Stormwater Impacts

Utilization of genetic markers for Bacteroides spp. to detect sanitary sewage contamination of urban stormwater.   This project focuses on non-point source pollution issues and specifically addresses how much surface runoff is contributing to bacterial levels in the watershed and where the fecal pollution originates, such as failing storm sewer connections, wildlife, etc.  The ultimate objective of this project to provide the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewage District technical staff sound information so that they may prioritize projects and direct resources to resolve major sources of bacterial pollution.  This project will also provide local communities with accurate and up to date information on the adverse impacts of stormwater runoff on receiving waters to aid in the development of effective and economical stormwater Best Management Practices (BMPs). 

 

Oceans and Human Health

Predicting Pathogen Fate in the Great Lakes.  Sewage overflows are a serious public health threat in the Great Lakes.  The EPA has previously estimated that 850 billion gallons of combined stormwater and sewage from older cities is discharged into surface waters.  Almost one fifth of these communities are in the Great Lakes, which has approximately 10,000 miles of shoreline and serves as drinking water to more than 40 million people.  This pollution contains human pathogens that can potentially impacts drinking water intakes and the more than 500 beaches within the US boundaries.  Our project is an interdisciplinary project focused on coupling hydrodynamic modeling and particle distribution studies with molecular detection of fecal indicator organisms to predict pathogen fate in the Great Lakes.  Recent findings from our work have shown that viruses and other pathogens are present at detectable levels following rain events that introduce stormwater into nearshore waters of Lake Michigan.  Levels of fecal indicator bacteria increase an order of magnitude (e.g. ten times) following severe storm events and combined sewer overflows.  Pollution plumes are rapidly diluted once they extend more than 2.5 km offshore, however evidence of pathogens can be found using molecular methods as far as 8-10 km into open waters.

This project is in collaboration with Hector Bravo's work with hydrodynamic modelling.

Hydrodynamic and Transport Model of the Lake Michigan Coast around Milwaukee

This project is also in collaboration with Val Klump's work on determining particle residence times and sediment resuspension in the system.

E. coli in the Sand

The cellular mechanisms involved in the survival of the fecal indicator organism E. coli in beach sand, a habitat of increasing interest, are relatively unknown.   Almost all designated public beaches in coastal regions will have monitoring programs for fecal pollution implemented by 2007.  Understanding the environmental reservoirs and determinants of E. coli die-off will be important for interpreting monitoring results of beaches and discerning whether elevated E. coli levels reflect human health risk. This project is in collaboration with Dr. Susan Bornstein-Forst, Marian University.

(PI: Dr. Susan Bornstein-Forst, Co-PI: Dr. Sandra McLellan)