Abstract
The Beaches Environmental Assessment and Coastal Health Act of 2002 (BEACH Act) requires the implementation and/or expansion of routine recreational water quality monitoring programs in all United States coastal recreational waters, including the Great Lakes, to be adopted by 2004. While the standardization of sample collection and laboratory testing protocols is essential, the ability to provide timely public notification is an equally important element. In preparation for the implementation of the BEACH Act in Wisconsin the communities of Milwaukee and Racine investigated the use of IDEXX Colilert-18, Quanti-Tray/2000 (IDEXX) as a means to reduce the time necessary for public notification of recreational water quality while still providing accurate and consistent test results. Conducted over a 2-year period, this study compared two methods, IDEXX and an approved USEPA membrane filtration method (m-Tec agar), for the quantitative determination of Escherichia coli in split samples from fresh water beaches. ANOVA analysis of regression relation indicated no significant difference between the data sets obtained using these methodologies (p < 0.001). Parallel studies conducted in the United Kingdom produced similar results. The fact that IDEXX decreases the time from sample collection to public notification by over six hours coupled with its ease of use and consistent results make this method an attractive choice for the implementation of fresh water and marine beach management programs.
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