![\"Biological](\"https:\/\/www.fondriest.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/MWRDBodyBoat.jpg\" "\\"Biological")
Biological sampling on the Chicago River (Credit: Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago)<\/p><\/div>\n
Agriculture, industry and waste from pets and wildlife also contribute microbes to the waterway, said Jack Gilbert, an Argonne environmental microbiologist involved in the study.<\/p>\n
Gilbert said the study will go well beyond the microbial monitoring MWRD already does to comply with EPA regulations. That work involves adding water samples to agar plates to see if cultures of E. coli or other fecal indicator bacteria grow there.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis culture-based assessment of disease-causing pathogens is the current standard,\u201d he said. \u201cWe think that\u2019s erroneous, primarily because many things don\u2019t grow on these agar plates. Also they\u2019re not investigating viruses, and we need to know what the source of those viruses is in the river system. Recently the microbial ecology community has developed techniques that allow mass screening of thousands and thousands of samples, and that allows us to paint a fundamentally comprehensive picture.\u201d<\/p>\n
Argonne scientists are tapping into the sampling the district already does through its ambient water quality monitoring program. MWRD scientists use surface grab sampling at 28 sites on 13 waterways and analyze the water not only for fecal indicator bacteria, but also for alkalinity, turbidity, dissolved metals, fats, radiochemistry and several other parameters.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.fondriest.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/MWRDBodySample.jpg\" "\\"A")
A MWRD pollution control technician collecting a dissolved oxygen sample from the patrol boat. (Credit: Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago)<\/p><\/div>\n
The ambient water quality program is part of MWRD\u2019s broader monitoring of waterways in its service area. The district also conducts continuous dissolved oxygen monitoring in the Chicago, Calumet and Des Plaines rivers with 18 monitoring stations\u2014both in shipping channels and shallow streams\u2014that are mounted on bridge abutments and encased in stainless steel for protection. The stations take hourly measurements of dissolved oxygen, temperature and specific conductivity.<\/p>\n
It also recently completed a study with university researchers of endocrine disruptors\u2014synthetic chemicals that mimic hormones and may disrupt the body\u2019s normal functions\u2014in the effluent from local wastewater treatment plants. The study found that endocrine disruptors were present throughout local waterways but did not appear to immediately harm fish.<\/p>\n
While the project\u2019s primary goal is measuring the success of MWRD\u2019s upgrades, it\u2019s also a chance to seek answers to fundamental questions about how microbes interact in the environment, Gilbert said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe most interesting thing from my perspective is that when a pathogen enters a natural ecosystem, it finds itself interacting with new organisms it\u2019s never encountered before,\u201d he said. \u201cIt finds itself in this light, cold and totally aerobic environment. If that doesn\u2019t kill it, it has the opportunity to start competing against these natural bacteria. We want to know what that interaction does to those organisms. Do they become more pathogenic? Less pathogenic? Shockingly, we know very little about that, primarily because we haven\u2019t had the tools to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n
It may have taken Chicago officials a long time to see their waterways as much more than channels for moving ships and waste, but Gilbert said MWRD\u2019s partnership with Argonne is evidence that the city is awakening to the Chicago River\u2019s potential as a recreation asset.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s remarkable to see a public body taking such a far-sighted perspective of their system,\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019re investing in the future by allowing us to investigate this microbial world. Nowhere else in the world is this being done.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A federal lab is partnering with the Chicago sewer district to model and study the microbes of the Chicago River to detect benefits of infrastructure upgrades.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":16197,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[60],"class_list":["post-16193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rivers-streams","tag-featured"],"remote_post_permalink":false,"remote_post_featured_image":false,"yoast_head":"\n