IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v3y2006i1p114-117d2378.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Impact of Rainfall on Fecal Coliform Bacteria in Bayou Dorcheat (North Louisiana)

Author

Listed:
  • Dagne D. Hill

    (Department of Biological Sciences, Grambling State University, P.O. Box 887, Grambling, Louisiana, USA)

  • William E. Owens

    (Louisiana State University Agricultural Experiment Station, Hill Farm Research Station, 11959 Highway 9, Homer, Louisiana, USA)

  • Paul B. Tchounwou

    (Molecular Toxicology Research Laboratory, NIH-Center for Environmental Health, College of Science, Engineering and Technology, Jackson State University, 1400 Lynch Street, P.O. Box 18540, Jackson, Mississippi, USA)

Abstract

Fecal coliform bacteria are the most common pollutant in rivers and streams. In Louisiana, it has been reported that 37% of surveyed river miles, 31% of lakes, and 23% of estuarine water had some level of contamination. The objective of this research was to assess the effect of surface runoff amounts and rainfall amount parameters on fecal coliform bacterial densities in Bayou Dorcheat in Louisiana. Bayou Dorcheat has been designated by the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality as a waterway that has uses such as primary contact recreation, secondary contact recreation, propagation of fish and wildlife, agriculture and as being an outstanding natural resource water. Samples from Bayou Dorcheat were collected monthly and analyzed for the presence of fecal coliforms. Fecal coliforms isolated from these samples were identified to the species level. The analysis of the bacterial levels was performed following standard test protocols as described in Standard Methods for the Examination of Water and Wastewater. Information regarding the rainfall amounts and surface runoff amounts for the selected years was retrieved from the Louisiana Office of State Climatology. It was found that a significant increase in the fecal coliform numbers may be associated with average rainfall amounts. Possible sources of elevated coliform counts could include sewage discharges from municipal treatment plants and septic tanks, storm water overflows, and runoff from pastures and range lands. It can be concluded that nonpoint source pollution that is carried by surface runoff has a significant effect on bacterial levels in water resources.

Suggested Citation

  • Dagne D. Hill & William E. Owens & Paul B. Tchounwou, 2006. "The Impact of Rainfall on Fecal Coliform Bacteria in Bayou Dorcheat (North Louisiana)," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 3(1), pages 1-4, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:3:y:2006:i:1:p:114-117:d:2378
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/3/1/114/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/3/1/114/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. John S. Furey & Herbert Fredrickson & Chris Foote & Margaret Richmond, 2007. "Post-Katrina Fecal Contamination in Violet Marsh near New Orleans," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 4(2), pages 1-9, June.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:3:y:2006:i:1:p:114-117:d:2378. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.