Wednesday, December 23, 2015


E. coli and faecal coliform runoff from zoo’s bison and elephants


When E. coli and fecal coliform counts were found elevated in a brook running through the local zoo and public park land in the city center, something had to be done. And when the waterway continued into a nearby public river and on to the bay, fixing the problem was all the more of a priority.

Working with the state DEP (Department of Environmental Protection), the zoo personnel narrowed in on sources like fecal matter runoff from the bison and elephant habitats, especially after heavy rainfall. They also discovered that some of the pollution sources were from further upstream, causing water quality issues before the water even reached zoo property.

Initial seeding doses of a bioremediation and biorestoration product were used to build up the levels of waste-metabolizing microbes. The archaea-based formula they chose has been used for more than 25-years, and it repeatedly has been shown to have zero pathogenic properties. In addition, it does not colonize and overtake the indigenous, established beneficial microbe community. Even in ideal conditions with a continuous food supply of contaminants for the beneficial microbes, you still will need to reapply, with any one dosage shown to last only about 3 or 4 months.

If we think of the parallel to probiotics we would take to rebalance our gut microbiome after it’s been thrown out of whack by the latest attack of gastroenteritis, just 5 or 10 years ago only a small proportion of doctors routinely were prescribing probiotics to their patients. But now it’s a common refrain after a course of antibiotics and other GI-tract disruptions. The probiotics provide a temporary boost to the body’s ability to rebalance the gut microbiome back to healthy functional parameters. But a week or two later if you binge on a fast food diet or go crazy with the Halloween candy, you’ll likely need to mind your microbes with a swig of kefir or cup of yogurt.

As for the zoo, as the months went by, they successfully were able to transition to smaller maintenance doses of the beneficial microbes, and they recorded dramatically-reduced E. coli and coliform pathogen counts, even after heavy rainfall events. The brook has been restored to a more healthy natural environment, and the bioremediation techniques were deemed a resounding success.



- A lifelong sailor and water lover, Kevin Mirise lives and works on the coast in Cohasset, near Boston, MA. He’s a Director at a bioremediation and biorestoration company that uses beneficial microbes to naturally eliminate contaminants from water and soil. 


Keys: Water Quality, Wastewater Treatment, Sewage Spill, Livestock, Agriculture, Equestrian, #Riverkeeper, #Waterkeeper, #Baykeeper

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