USGS Ohio Water Science Center

Project Title: Great Lakes Ocean Research Priorities Plan—Ohio Water Science Center.

Project chief: Donna Francy

Project support: Rebecca Bushon, Christopher Kephart, Denise Dumouchelle, Erin Bertke, Amie Brady, Robert Darner, Erin Stelzer, Brian Mailot

Cooperators: Cuyahoga County Board of Health, Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District, Ohio Lake Erie Office, University of Toledo

Project duration: 2008 - 2013

Great Lakes Ocean Research Priorities Plan—Ohio Water Science Center.

Introduction and problem:
Water recreation and associated tourism add billions of dollars to the economy of the Great Lakes Region and provide numerous societal benefits. There are several problems, however, with the current approach to establishing beach closures and advisories. First, current beach monitoring practices rely on methods for culturing fecal-indicator bacteria that take 18-24 hours for results, too long to provide information on current water-quality conditions. Secondly, sources of fecal contamination in recreational waters are often unknown and/or of nonpoint origins. The relations between coastal processes (sediment transport and storage, ground-water/surface-water interactions, wave actions, seiches, etc.) and bacteria concentrations have not been comprehensively studied in the Great Lakes. Development of methods that discriminate between human and animal nonpoint-source fecal contamination are needed to help identify risks associated with contaminated recreational waters. Finally, recreational waters are seldom monitored for pathogens, which often have different transport and survival properties than the fecal-indicator bacteria used to indicate their presence.

The USGS Great Lakes Ocean Research Priorities Plan (ORPP) is a regional initiative that includes the collaboration of USGS scientists from Water Science Centers (WSC) in Ohio, Michigan, and Wisconsin and the Great Lakes Science Center in Indiana and is funded through the U.S. Ocean Action Plan (OAP).

Goals and Objectives:
The goal of the ORPP is to advance the science of monitoring and assessing recreational water quality to provide beach managers with reliable, science based information to make well-informed beach closure decisions to protect public health. To read more, refer to the ORPP fact sheet. To read more, refer to the ORPP fact sheet.

Four elements will be addressed by the ORPP project team:

1. Improving Great-Lakes-Wide Beach Data Analysis, Interpretation, and Communication: Work to improve communication among other scientists and stakeholders on beach monitoring, research issues, and data sharing. Compile data on Great Lakes beach recreational quality in a comprehensive database and a geographic information system (GIS) that together (a) facilitate the assembly of ORPP project data and outside-source data for access by team members, (b) improve the scientific evaluation and interpretation of Great Lakes beach water quality, and (c) enhance the communication of this information to the public.

2. Real-time assessments of recreational water quality: Further develop and expand the use of functional real-time assessments to more locations around the Great Lakes and improve the accuracy of real-time assessments. Real-time assessments include the use of predictive models and (or) rapid analytical methods. Some specific objectives include (a) exploring the use of alternative independent variables and real-time sensors for predictive models, (b) testing new statistical techniques, (c) providing a tool or automated real-time system to stakeholders, (d) evaluating the use of different dependent variables (other than E. coli) in predictive models, and (e) applying and evaluating rapid analytical methods, such as such as quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) or immunomagnetic separation/adenosine triphosphate (IMS/ATP), at Great Lakes beaches.

3. Pathogens and microbial source tracking markers (MST): Determine the occurrence of pathogens of concern for human health and MST markers at beaches susceptible to different sources of fecal pollution, and where detected, identify environmental variables related to their occurrence. Some specific objectives are to (a) develop and apply monitoring protocols, sampling strategies, and analytical methods for bacterial, protozoan, and viral pathogens and MST markers, (b) identify the relations between bacterial indicator concentrations and pathogen/MST detections or concentrations, (c) identify whether materials (such as sand, algae, or stormwater) that contribute to bacterial indicator concentrations also contribute to pathogen occurrence and concentration, and (d) develop a matrix of beach types that can be categorized with respect to bacterial indicators, pathogens, MST markers, and environmental characteristics associated with human-health risk potential.

4. Investigate coastal processes: Characterize the transfer of bacterial indicators, pathogens, and additional bacterial, molecular, and/or chemical indicators of non-point sources between shoreline or sediment sources and swimming water. The pathways and mechanisms by which these transfer occurs will be explored through surveys, empirical analysis, and mechanistic modeling.

Approach:
The USGS Ohio WSC will address all 4 elements listed above during 2009.

The Ohio WSC will:

Attend meetings, including those with other ORPP researchers, stakeholders, and researchers, including the National Beach Meeting and the Great Lakes Beach Association Annual meeting.
Provide information for a beach research bibliography and ORPP web site.

The Ohio WSC will continue to work with local agencies on the maintenance and operation of the Ohio Nowcast, where operational predictive models are used to post advisories at Huntington (Bay Village) and Edgewater (Cleveland). Additionally, the Ohio WSC will work with the Erie County Health Department to transfer technology and test the IMS/ATP rapid analytical method and with University of Toledo to develop predictive models. Specific activities include:

At Huntington, install a nearshore buoy to measure wave height and turbidity, an on-shore platform to measure photosynthetically active radiation (PAR), and telemetry to transmit data real-time. Continue both morning and afternoon sampling.
At Edgewater, continue to measure wave height with a nearshore buoy, install a rain gage near the beach, install a surveillance camera, and use telemetry to transmit data real-time.
Install piezometers at Huntington and Edgewater to measure ground-water levels and compute change in foreshore head.
Initiate the monitoring of enterococci 4 days/week at Huntington and Edgewater.
Compare the use of IMS/ATP to a traditional analytical method for E. coli at two Erie County beaches—Huron West and Huron East.
Continue to collect data at Maumee State Park, Oregon, Ohio, to develop predictive models.

The Ohio WSC will investigate the use of a gull MST marker using an assay for Catelliococcus marimammalium ( Lu and others, 2008) on fecal-source and lake-water samples collected from Lake Erie beaches.

Lu, J., Santo Domingo, J.W., Lamendella, R., Edge, T., and Hill, S., 2008, Phylogenetic diversity and molecular detection of bacteria in gull feces: Applied and Environmental Microbiology, v. 74, no. 13, p. 3969-3976.

The Ohio WSC will investigate coastal processes at Lake Erie beaches through the use piezometers installed in the swash zone and foreshore areas. Specific activities may include:

Monitoring water-quality and E. coli and enterococci concentrations and water levels in piezometers.
Analyzing data to determine the effects of waves and surface-water infiltration on ground-water levels and E. coli and enterococci concentrations.
Additional water samples may be collected for other microbiological analyses.

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