Pathogen Indicator Monitoring In The Ross Barnett Reservoir

Man-made reservoirs are often used for both water supply and recreation. The Ross Barnett Reservoir in central Mississippi, a 33,000-acre man-made lake, provides drinking water to the city of Jackson, MS, and forty-eight surrounding communities. Further, an estimated 2.5 million people visit the Reservoir each year for recreational purposes, including boating, fishing, water-skiing, and swimming. Protecting the water quality in the Reservoir is important for these visitors and inhabitants along the shoreline, and for these reasons, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has selected it as a Priority Watershed in Mississippi. Presently, there is a concern regarding recent data collected that indicated increasing concentrations of bacteria in the Reservoir. To detect possible harmful levels of bacteria in recreational waters, pathogen indicator monitoring is used. Sources of pathogens may include stormwater runoff, failing septic systems, lake-bottom sediments, and animals and humans in direct contact with the water. A collaborative study to investigate potential pathogen contamination in the Reservoir is underway by the University of Mississippi, the U.S. Geological Survey, and the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality. The goal of the study is to determine a method of pathogen indicator monitoring that takes less time than the standard 24 hours required by current methods for detecting bacteria. Such a method would improve the swiftness of notification to Reservoir users when the water quality is not appropriate for contact. Pathogen indicators and other water-quality data such as water temperature, pH, turbidity, conductivity, dissolved oxygen, nutrients and solar strength, were collected at two recreational sites at the Reservoir twice a week for 23 events through the spring and summer of 2013 as part of the collaborative study. Average concentrations for all E. coli, enterococci, and fecal coliform were 264 cfu/100mL, 175 cfu/100mL, and 298 cfu/100mL, respectively. The concentrations of pathogen indicators, nutrients, and values of physical parameters were statistically analyzed to provide insight about contamination sources. The use of remote sensing technology and water quality data was explored. The Normalized Difference Suspended Sediment Index (NDSSI) was used to determine relationships between turbidity and bacteria. Overall, this research indicated that two water quality indicators of harmful bacteria levels in the water were turbidity at sites with low water circulation days following rain events.

Name thesis:degree_name

M.S. in Engineering Science

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Civil Engineering

Year dc:date.available

2015

Author dc:creator

• Capps, Hannie Quay Parker

Contributors dc:contributor

• Cristiane Q. Surbeck
• A. K. M. Azad Hossain
• Greg Easson

• Fecal Indicator Bacteria
• Recreational Water Quality
• Water Quality
• Environmental Engineering

Repository record dc:identifier

https://egrove.olemiss.edu/etd/428

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:egrove.olemiss.edu:etd-1427