In 2008 13% of Great Lakes beaches exceeded health standards; approximately 90% of those exceedances were attributed to unknown pollution sources. In this project, sanitary surveys were conducted at all impaired beaches ...

Beach water quality is determined using Escherichia coli as an indicator organism for fecal contamination. Traditional methods may result in improper beach closures and openings, as they base their decisions on previous ...

The traditional methods to quantitatively determine Escherichia coli concentrations in beach water are the membrane filtration and defined substrate methods. These methods take 18-24 hours for enumeration of E. coli ...

The defined substrate method, Colilert® (IDEXX, Westbrook, ME), is currently the most widely used method approved by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) to detect Escherichia coli and total coliforms ...

In recent years, thick mats of the green alga, Cladophora, have washed onto beaches along Lake Michigan. These mats become stranded on the shoreline, begin to rot, and are malodorous. The rotting mats are a nuisance to ...