What is fecal bacteria?
Being a heavily urbanized watershed, the Anacostia often receives frequent inputs of stormwater pollution and combined sewage overflows (CSOs), bringing potential sewage and pollution into our waterways. Fecal bacteria are bacteria like E. Coli and Enterococcus that enter our waterways from sewage, runoff, and the waste of warm-blooded animals in the watershed. Our water quality monitoring programs analyze waters in the Anacostia for E. Coli as it can be used as an indicator of the presence of more dangerous bacteria that can cause illness. It’s our intent to report these bacteria results as quickly as possible during the recreational season in order to allow residents and visitors to make up-to-date, informed decisions about their water recreation as well as report on the overall health of our waterways.
How do we measure fecal bacteria?
For our water quality programs we measure the fecal bacteria E. Coli as it’s commonly found in the guts of most warm-blooded animals and can be used as a proxy for more dangerous bacteria possibly present in waterways. We analyze our samples using the IDEXX Colilert system which allows us to sample and report E. Coli levels all within a 24-hour window. Fecal bacteria is the primary water quality parameter used to asses the recreation potential of waters and is one of the parameters used in “recreational contact standards”. While swimming is currently banned in all DC waters, collecting bacteria data is still vital to provide information to those recreating in the District in other ways like boating or fishing.