http://www.bestlightproductions.com/od_environ_video.htm
Ogden Dunes is a town in NW Indiana with beachfront on Lake Michigan. The video linked above describes their beach water quality monitoring program, including how samples are collected and processed, what is done with the data and how decisions are made to either open or close their beaches for swimming. While this beach program is testing fresh water from a Great Lakes Beach, this video is completely applicable to all ocean beaches in the US as well. The sampling, analysis & decision making are all the same. There is just a different bacteria standard that is tested,
Enterococcus for marine waters, rather than
E. Coli in fresh water.
I highly recommend anyone interested in the science behind beach closures and swimming advisories to check out this video. It is brief and very informative.
I highly recommend anyone interested in the science behind beach closures and swimming advisories to check out this video. It is brief and very informative.