Regional Assessment of Human Fecal Contamination in Southern California Coastal Drainages

Yiping Cao, Meredith R. Raith, Paul D. Smith, John F. Griffith, Stephen B. Weisberg, Alexander Schriewer, Andrew Sheldon, Chris Crompton, Geremew G. Amenu, Jason Gregory, Joe Guzman, Kelly D. Goodwin, Laila Othman, Mayela Manasjan, Samuel Choi, Shana Rapoport, Syreeta Steele, Tommy Nguyen and Xueyuan Yu
Additional contact information
Yiping Cao: Southern California Coastal Water Research Project, 3535 Harbor Blvd, Suite 110, Costa Mesa, CA 92626, USA
Meredith R. Raith: Southern California Coastal Water Research Project, 3535 Harbor Blvd, Suite 110, Costa Mesa, CA 92626, USA
Paul D. Smith: Southern California Coastal Water Research Project, 3535 Harbor Blvd, Suite 110, Costa Mesa, CA 92626, USA
John F. Griffith: Southern California Coastal Water Research Project, 3535 Harbor Blvd, Suite 110, Costa Mesa, CA 92626, USA
Stephen B. Weisberg: Southern California Coastal Water Research Project, 3535 Harbor Blvd, Suite 110, Costa Mesa, CA 92626, USA
Alexander Schriewer: Weston Solutions, 5817 Dryden Place, Suite 101, Carlsbad, CA 92008, USA
Andrew Sheldon: City of Malibu, 23825 Stuart Ranch Road, Malibu, CA 90265, USA
Chris Crompton: Orange County Department of Public Works, 2301 N. Glassell St, Orange, CA 92865, USA
Geremew G. Amenu: Los Angeles County Department of Public Works, 900 S. Fremont Ave, Alhambra, CA 91803, USA
Jason Gregory: Los Angeles County Sanitation District, 24501 S. Figueroa Street, Carson, CA 90745, USA
Joe Guzman: Orange County Public Health Laboratory, 600 Shellmaker Road, Newport Beach, CA 92660, USA
Kelly D. Goodwin: National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration, Ocean Chemistry and Ecosystems Division, Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory, Miami, FL 33149, stationed at NOAA/NMFS/SWFSC, La Jolla, CA, USA
Laila Othman: City of San Diego Public Utilities Department, Environmental Monitoring and Technical Services Division, 2392 Kincaid Road, San Diego, CA 92101, USA
Mayela Manasjan: City of Encinitas, 505 S. Vulcan Ave, Encinitas, CA 92024, USA
Samuel Choi: Orange County Sanitation District, 10844 Ellis Ave, Fountain Valley, CA 92708, USA
Shana Rapoport: Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board, 320 W. 4th St, Suite 200, Los Angeles, CA 90013, USA
Syreeta Steele: Ventura County Public Health Laboratory, 2240 E. Gonzales Road, Oxnard, CA 93036, USA
Tommy Nguyen: City of Los Angeles Environmental Monitoring Division, 12000 Vista del Mar Blvd, Playa del Rey, CA 90293, USA
Xueyuan Yu: San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board, 2375 Northside Dr., Suite 100, San Diego, CA 92108, USA

IJERPH, 2017, vol. 14, issue 8, 1-15

Abstract: Host-associated genetic markers that allow for fecal source identification have been used extensively as a diagnostic tool to determine fecal sources within watersheds, but have not been used in routine monitoring to prioritize remediation actions among watersheds. Here, we present a regional assessment of human marker prevalence among drainages that discharge to the U.S. southern California coast. Approximately 50 samples were analyzed for the HF183 human marker from each of 22 southern California coastal drainages under summer dry weather conditions, and another 50 samples were targeted from each of 23 drainages during wet weather. The HF183 marker was ubiquitous, detected in all but two sites in dry weather and at all sites during wet weather. However, there was considerable difference in the extent of human fecal contamination among sites. Similar site ranking was produced regardless of whether the assessment was based on frequency of HF183 detection or site average HF183 concentration. However, site ranking differed greatly between dry and wet weather. Site ranking also differed greatly when based on enterococci, which do not distinguish between pollution sources, vs. HF183, which distinguishes higher risk human fecal sources from other sources, indicating the additional value of the human-associated marker as a routine monitoring tool.

Keywords: fecal source identification; human fecal marker; storm water; microbial source tracking; water quality monitoring; regional monitoring program; qPCR (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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