Delaware focuses on testing water

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State focuses on testing water

By MOLLY MURRAY

Sussex Bureau reporter

05/25/2002

While millions of tourists play at Delaware's beaches this summer, state

environmental scientists will be working to find out exactly what's in the

water and how it got there.

The scientists will use DNA tests that eventually could be used to determine

specific pollution sources and better assess risk to swimmers and other

water users. That information could then be used to post warnings for

swimmers and boaters.

In a three-prong testing program, the state will:

.. Increase the number of test sites in the inland bays to include boat

launch areas and spots where creeks empty into Rehoboth, Little Assawoman

and Indian River bays.

.. Test for specific micro-organisms and viruses that could make people sick.

.. Continue sampling key spots in the Inland Bays for harmful algaes and

potentially toxic microbes such as pfiesteria piscacida.

Over the next several years, the testing will give a comprehensive look at

pollution in waters that are widely used by swimmers and boaters, said Jack

Pingree, manager of the state shellfish and recreational water branch for

the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control.

" Virtually every water body in the state has high bacterial loads, " said Sam

Myoda, a state environmental engineer. " We want to find out why.''

The data will eventually be used to set maximum daily pollution limits for

water ways, and Pingree said it could ultimately play an important role in

recreational-water monitoring.

Under the current recreational water testing program, state officials sample

for total enterococci. Enterococci is an indicator organism - a microbe that

is often found when harmful bacteria are in the water. They'll continue that

sampling this year using federal Environmental Protection Agency guidelines.

But what regulators and swimmers really want to know is whether the water is

contaminated with bacteria that could make people sick - bacteria found in

human or animal waste.

Although human bacteria from failing septic systems and waste treatment

plant overflows may pose more risk to people than bacteria from the waste of

sea gulls or domesticated animals, the current water monitoring program does

not distinguish between human and animal waste.

" It leaves a lot of unanswered questions, " Pingree said.

Myoda will work with the state Division of Public Health and the University

of Delaware to begin sampling potential sources of bacteria. They will look

at everything from specific sewer plant discharges and septic systems to

manure from chickens, sea gulls and even dogs and cats.

They'll use DNA testing to find the identifying markers that distinguish the

human waste treated at the Rehoboth Beach Waste Water Treatment Plant from

the sea gull droppings on the beach along Rehoboth Bay and the waste from

chickens that are raised near Love Creek.

The genetic details could get very specific, even down to individual

animals, but state officials don't plan to take it to that level, Myoda

said. He said they plan to create a library of data that can be used to

broadly identify sources of pollution.

Under the federal Beaches Environmental Assessment and Coastal Health Act of

2000, every state must comply by 2004 with strict EPA guidelines on coastal

swimming water monitoring.

Delaware received a $211,000 federal grant to bolster water-quality

monitoring, and Pingree said the state recreational program will meet most

of the federal requirements this year.

Stuart , chairman of the Delaware Chapter of the Surfriders

Foundation, a group of surfers who advocate for clean water, said Delaware

is headed in the right direction, but state and local officials need to do a

better job letting visitors know the results of the water tests.

State water test results are posted on the DNREC Website and also are

available through a toll-free telephone number.

But said beach visitors may not be aware of the Web posting or the

phone number. Pingree said state and local officials need to work out the

details of a program to post signs at Delaware Bay beaches and ocean beaches

when there are water quality problems.

Members of Surfriders will monitor selected beaches for the fourth year,

collecting their own samples and posting the results on their Website,

said.

In more than a decade of recreational water tests along the ocean from Cape

Henlopen to Fenwick Island, state environmental officials rarely saw

bacteria counts that exceeded state limits. But water quality problems are

so chronic in Little Assawoman, Indian River and Rehoboth bays that state

officials last year issued permanent advisories and posted signs warning

boaters, wind-board sailors, swimmers and jet-boat users that contact with

the water could cause health problems.

For board sailors like Harold of Dagsboro, water quality is always a

concern.

" We so enjoy the [Rehoboth] bay this time of year and in the fall, " he said.

The water is so clear, " you can see your feet. "

But said he knows that bacteria can be present in clear water.

In the inland bays, bacterial pollution is not the only issue. There, fish

kills, rotting seaweed and harmful algae have been problems, so

environmental officials will continue a separate program tracking harmful

algae and toxins.

" With each year, we become more focused on the geographical areas of

concerns, " said Huerta, the administrator at the state environmental

laboratory. He said state crews will test water for algae and toxins at two

sites in Indian River and Rehoboth bays and three sites in Little Assawoman

Bay. They will use automated data collectors in the Indian River, at Pepper

Creek and at Love Creek, he said.

Volunteers trained at the University of Delaware College of Marine Studies

in Lewes will continue to monitor additional sites around the inland bays

just as they did last year, he said. In previous year's tests, state

officials have confirmed the presence of some harmful algae which have been

linked in other areas to massive fish kills and human health risks such as

sometimes fatal paralytic shellfish poisoning.

State environmental officials have investigated more than a dozen fish

kills, some of them major, in the inland bays since 1999. They increased

water testing following major fish kills linked to the toxic microbe

pfiesteria piscicida in 1997 in the land end of the Pocomoke River. The

headwaters of the Pocomoke begin in Delaware.

Reach Molly Murray at 856-7372 or mmurray@....