Surface Water Quality and Bioremediation

BACKGROUND:

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that about 2.6 billion people do not use improved sanitation and that 884 million people do not use improved sources of drinking water (WHO, 2010). The vast majority of diarrhoeal disease in the world (88%) is attributable to unsafe water, sanitation and hygiene (WHO, 2003). Poor microbial water quality, sanitation, and hygiene account for some 1.7 million deaths a year worldwide, mainly through infectious diarrhea (Ashbolt, 2004). Since most countries in tropical climates are underdeveloped, with large populations that are undernourished, ill-housed, with poor medical services, waterborne diseases may have a much greater effect on public health in the tropics than in temperate areas (Hazen, 1988). Infectious disease transmission may occur via surface waters when these waters become contaminated with fecal material from humans, livestock and wildlife (USEPA, 2003).

During heavy rains and floods, tropical stream and coastal communities suffer due to surface runoff, which can carry fecal bacteria, pathogens, carcinogens, nutrients and more toward surf breaks and make surfers and others sick. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) recommends testing for the fecal indicator bacteria Enterococcus for all U.S. fresh and marine waters, since presence of Enterococcus has been shown to be directly correlated with gastrointestinal illness rates associated with recreational contact (USEPA, 1986). The water quality criterion for Enterococcus is a geometric mean concentration of 33 Most Probable Number (MPN)/100 ml in fresh water, and 35 MPN/100 ml in marine water, of 5 samples collected over a 30 day period (USEPA, 1986). A single grab sample cannot exceed 104 Enterococcus MPN/100 ml in U.S. marine waters (USEPA, 1986).

Potential causes of pollution of tropical stream and marine waters include lack of management of ungulates, agricultural and urban runoff and discharges, and direct deposition of ungulate and human fecal material to surface waters.  Some tropical research shows that fecal bacteria specifically indicate fecal contamination of tropical surface water (Isobe et al., 2004; Gonzalez et al., 2009), associates fecal bacteria with the anthropogenic influence status of tropical waters (Byamukama et al., 2005), and suggest that the species composition and antimicrobial resistance of Enterococci in tropical aquatic environments are influenced by fecal and antimicrobial pollution (Petersen and Dalsgaard, 2003).

With regards specifically to tropical islands, high fecal bacteria water quality data that exceeded USEPA recommended limits collected on lower to mid elevations of the overpopulated tropical islands of O‘ahu, Guam, and Puerto Rico could be due to extensive land degradation by ungulates and people, and other invasive animals (Hazen, 1988; Hardina and Fujioka, 1991; Fujioka et al., 1999). Research from the Philippines showed that grossly contaminated water is a major source of exposure to fecal contamination and diarrhoeal pathogens, and that Enterococci were found to be better predictors of diarrhea risk than fecal coliforms (Moe et al., 1991). Comparatively, data collected on the less populated tropical islands of American Samoa, showed that all coastal Enterococcus water samples were well within the single sample limit proposed to indicate waters safe for body contact recreation (DiDonato et al., 2009). Furthermore, positive enterococcal source protein (esp) gene assays in Hawaiian tropical island watersheds indicated that some Enterococci in environmental samples were of human fecal origin (Knee et al., 2008; Betancourt and Fujioka, 2009). The Almendares River, located in Havana city, on the tropical island of Cuba receives the wastewaters of more than 200,000 inhabitants and the high abundance of fecal bacterial indicators (FBIs) in the downstream stretch of the river reflects the very poor microbiological water quality (Garcia Armisen et al., 2008). Researchers found too that recreational activity resulted in reduced fecal bacteria water quality in tropical island stream water: sites with recreation had poorer fecal bacteria water quality than those without; water quality was generally poorer when there were high numbers of recreational users (Phillip et al., 2009). Furthermore, Enterococci concentrations (MPN/g) in rural tropical island soils were not significantly associated with Enterococci geometric mean concentrations (MPN/100 ml) in the same rural tropical island stream water (Ragosta et al., 2010). Plus, reducing tropical island stream tree canopy was significantly associated with increases in geometric mean of Enteroccoci in-stream water (Ragosta et al., 2010). Since exogenous DNA increase lateral root branching and root hair length (Paungfoo-Lonhienne et al., 2010), it is possible that tropical tree roots increase by absorbing multiple types of DNA from animal and human fecal sources which could improve surface water quality.

Surfers could be putting themselves at risk to increased incidence rates of gastrointestinal illness if they surf in marine waters of Hawaiian and other tropical  islands that exceed the geometric mean of 35 MPN Enterococcus/100 ml of marine water, or a single sample maximum of 104 MPN Enterococcus/100 ml of marine water (USEPA, 1986). Still, researchers claim that Enterococcus occurs naturally in tropical island soil and water producing false positive results with respect to implied contamination by feces of warm-blooded animals and the microbiological safety of water supplies; thereby making Enterococci invalid as an indicator of contamination by human and animal feces on tropical islands (Hardina and Fujioka 1991; Fujioka et al., 1999; Fujioka, 2001; Byappanahalli and Fujioka, 2004). But, limited fecal bacteria soil and water quality data collected on lower to mid elevations of the overpopulated tropical islands of O‘ahu and Guam (Hardina and Fujioka, 1991; Fujioka et al., 1999); did not consider that previous fecal contamination, followed by degradation and disappearance of the fecal matrix, may leave Enterococci in tropical island soils and waters even though feces do not appear to be present (Ragosta et al., 2010).

Click on the link below to see updated Hawaiian Islands marine water quality data for Enterococcus, an indicator of animal and human fecal contamination of marine waters (USEPA, 1986):

Hawai’i State Department of Health Clean Water Branch Coastal Enterococcus Water Quality Data.

METHODS:

Surfing Medicine International staff have experience in ecological monitoring, leading field crews in restoration, and examining multiple tropical ecosystem variables using linear mixed effects models to determine significance of associations between land use, average rainfall (cm/hour), average solar radiation (kW), turbidity (NTU), stream temperature, dissolved oxygen (mg/L), canopy cover (%), salinity (ppt), Enterococcus (MPN/g) concentration in riparian soil, presence of ungulates near water quality monitoring sites, and Enterococcus (MPN/100 ml) concentration in surface water across stream and coastal sites and sample events, among other surface water quality variables (Pinheiro and Bates, 2000). Linear mixed effects regression analysis (Pinheiro and Bates, 2000) is a statistical model well suited to water quality and other environmental research where investigators repeatedly sample a set of locations and want to determine if individual water samples or other environmental parameters are significantly associated with one or more land use patterns, climate measurements, geomorphological attributes, or other such independent factors operating at the plot-, field-, or watershed-scale (Atwill et al., 2006; Lewis et al., 2009; Ragosta et al., 2010). Linear mixed effects regression models have been successfully used to determine maximum differences between buffered and non-buffered plots primarily at the leading edge of irrigation events and in the first few weeks following fertilizer application (Bedard-Haughn et al., 2004), to quantify the impact of regular cutting on vegetative buffer efficacy for Nitrogen-15 sequestration (Bedard-Haughn et al., 2005), to identify the association between dairy farm management practices and fecal coliform levels in farm runoff for coastal watersheds (Lewis et al., 2005), identify rangeland parameters that correlate with amount of livestock fecal deposition on rangelands (Tate et al., 2003), fecal bacteria loads discharged from annual grasslands under rainfall runoff conditions (Atwill et al., 2003, 2006; Tate et al. 2000, 2006); to identify which management practice reduces fecal bacteria in irrigated pasture runoff (Knox et al., 2007), to determine associations between macropore hydraulic properties with soil bulk density and rainfall rate (Harter et al., 2007), that management and implementation of practices that improve water quality are significantly associated with reducing the transport of fecal bacteria during early and large storm events (Lewis et al., 2009), to determine associations between waterborne Cryptosporidium parvum oocysts (bovine genotype A) loading with slope, rainfall, infiltration rate, soil type, and vegetated buffer length (Atwill et al., 2002), to determine that human habitation of the landscape does not impact stream nitrate levels until a waste water treatment plant was built within a sub-basin (Ahearn et al., 2005), to determine patterns that suggest the ability of spring-fed wetlands to sequester and transform nitrates, thereby reducing the N load on downstream aquatic ecosystems (Jackson et al., 2006), to determine percentage annual death loss for old versus new blue oak seedlings (Phillips et al., 2007), that reductions in riparian canopy cover were significantly associated with increasing Enterococci geometric mean concentrations (MPN/100 ml) in tropical island stream water; and that Enterococci geometric mean concentrations in-tropical island stream water were not significantly associated with Enterococci concentrations in riparian surface soil (Ragosta et al., 2010). Watershed scale data collected and analyzed by our scientists in collaboration with indigenous peoples aids in ongoing monitoring and implementation of best management practices with traditional healers such as bioremediation projects using medicinal plants to decrease surface runoff pollution to tropical streams and beaches.

REASONS TO WORK WITH US:

Most watershed partnerships in Hawaii are not yet engaging the public (Gutrich et al., 2005). Furthermore, some tropical island nations in different regions of the world also negate to engage the public in sustainable watershed management. We bridge gaps between cultures, landowners, governments, and water users thru our ethical and methodical watershed management research that follows standard protocol for field and lab techniques (APHA, 2005, Sec. 9.21) (USEPA, 2003). We use statistical methods to find causal connections between land use history, plant communities, feral animals, and surface water quality, and to aid in the quantitative prediction of surface water quality variables (e.g., fecal bacteria and pathogens) when plant communities are altered (e.g., decline in stream canopy cover %), or when ungulates are introduced into a watershed. In conclusion, Surfing Medicine International strives to educate on and implement restoration projects that improve surface water quality by bringing together communities, traditional healers, and scientists to create and maintain sustainable medicinal plant ecosystems from summits to sea based on the most advanced scientific and statistical methods available for analyzing all watershed data points.

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