Saturday, May 17, 2008

Water Quality Sampling Tray

This is a microbial sample tray viewed under UV light after incubating 24 hours on the patrol boat.



All the fluorescent wells are alive with Enterococcus bacteria, an indicator of untreated human waste. A strong result such as this one indicates a cell count GREATER than 24,000 entero cells per 100 milliliter sample. Federal guidelines recommend closure of beaches at 104 cells per 100ml and above. So this is really bad water.