A Holistic Watershed Planning Approach: How MSDGC Conducts an Integrated Water Quality Monitoring Project

摘要

In order to improve water quality and reduce human health risks associated with harmfulbacteria, Metropolitan Sewer District of Greater Cincinnati (MSDGC) collaborated withUniversity of Cincinnati have developed innovative molecular tools for microbial sourcetracking and identify what are the major contributors are and how to manage it in awatershed level. The results presented in this study showed that microbial source trackingis very useful to identify the major pollution contributors to the impairment of LittleMiami River and further guide the development of CSO strategies for the actual fieldwork and the subsequent data analysis for a baseline bioassessment. One of the mostimportant findings of the study was the absence of pathogenic organisms such asEscherichia coli O157:H7 from the water samples collected from all the sampling sites.In addition, the study showed a multiple set of biomarkers are needed to understand fullythe watershed condition.