Occurrence and distribution of bacterial indicators and pathogens in canal communities along the Texas coast.

Date

1977

Authors

Goyal, S.M.
Gerba, C.P.
Melnick, J.L.

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

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Abstract

Increased construction of residential canal communities along the southern coastline of the USA has led to a concern about their impact on water quality. Pollution of such dead-end canals is potentially hazardous because of their heavy usage for recreational activities. Coliforms, fecal coliforms, and salmonellae in the surface water and bottom sediments of 6 selected residential coastal canals were monitored over a period of 17 mo. No statistically significant relationship was observed between the organism concentrations and temperature, pH, turbidity, and suspended solids content of water. An inverse relationship between the concentration of indicator organism and salinity of water was found, however, to occured at a 99.9% level of significance. All of the microorganisms studied were present in greater numbers in sediments than in the overlying water, often by a factor of several logs. Heavy rainfall resulted in large increases in the number of organisms in both water and sediment samples. Bottom sediments in the shallow canal systems can act as reservoirs of enteric bacteria, which may be resuspended in response to various environmental factors and recreational activities.

Description

p. 139-149

Keywords

microbiology, bacteriology, bacteria, canals, sediments, ecological distribution, abundance

Citation