WSSC Monitoring – Results Analysis
WSSC Analysis of Monitoring, December 2011
WSSC presented the results of their water quality monitoring through Dec 2011, pursuant to the consent degree. A preliminary qualitative observation is that 80-100% of the bacteria sources in area streams has been found to be from pets, wildlife, and agriculture, and the predominate source, avian/waterfowl. A note regarding the comment in slide 4: “Suggestions from AWS considered: reduce points outside the Anacostia watershed.” The complete suggestion was to reduce the sampling points and double the monitoring frequency at certain stations, leaving unchanged the actual number of times monitoring is done.
WSSC Monitoring Results, 2007-2016
As a result of the consent decree, the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission (WSSC) began monitoring regional waterways for levels of fecal bacteria, including bacteria source testing. Here are the results through 2016 for Sligo Creek:
Date | Sligo Upstream Site Ranking | Fecal Bacteria Results Enterococcus CFU/100mL |
Sligo Downstream Site Ranking | Fecal Bacteria Results Enterococcus CFU/100mL |
---|---|---|---|---|
December 15th, 2016 | 25th/40 sites tested | 282 | 29th/40 sites tested | 419 |
March 23, 2016 | 15th/40 sites tested | 16 | 1st/40 sites tested (tied with thirteen other sites) |
<10 |
September 15th, 2015 | 32nd/40 sites tested | 510 | 25th/40 sites tested | 283 |
March 19th, 2015 | 1st/40 sites tested (tied with 15 other sites) |
<10 | 29th/40 sites tested | 45 |
September 17th, 2014 | 36th/40 sites tested | 433 | 12th/40 sites tested | 71 |
April 2nd, 2014 | 23rd/40 sites tested | 69 | 24th/40 sites tested | 71 |
September 18th, 2013 | 38th/40 sites tested | 952 | 9th/40 sites tested | 85 |
March 28th, 2013 | 19th/40 sites tested | 18 | 25th/40 sites tested | 31 |
October 18th, 2012 | 20th/40 sites tested | 162 | 29th/40 sites tested | 273 |
April 4th, 2012 | 33rd/40 sites tested | 83 | 35th/40 sites tested | 102 |
November 2nd, 2011 | 16th/40 sites tested | 125 | 9th/40 sites tested | 70 |
June 4th, 2011 | N/A | N/A | 4th/4 sites tested | 370 |
March 29th, 2011 | 27th/40 sites tested | 38 | 39th/40 sites tested | 825 |
November 10th, 2010 | N/A | N/A | 3rd/4 sites tested | 39 |
October 12th, 2010 | 18th/40 sites tested | 323 | 10th/40 sites tested | 213 |
June 28th, 2010 | N/A | N/A | 4th/4 sites tested | 2720 |
April 13th, 2010 | 18th/40 sites tested | 23 | 1st/40 sites tested (tied with six other sites) |
<10 |
November 18th, 2009 | N/A | N/A | 2nd/4 sites tested | 39 |
September 21st, 2009 | 39th/40 sites tested | 848 | 40th/40 sites tested | 877 |
June 26th, 2009 | N/A | N/A | 4rd/4 sites tested | 187 |
March 24th, 2009 | 35th/40 sites tested | 78 | 29th/40 sites tested | 23 |
November 19th, 2008 | N/A | N/A | 4rd/4 sites tested | 57 |
September 17th, 2008 | 27th/40 sites tested | 308 | 35th/40 sites tested | 483 |
July 9th, 2008 | N/A | N/A | 3rd/4 sites tested | 50 |
March 26th, 2008 | 1st/40 sites tested (tied with 25 other sites) |
<10 | 38th/40 sites tested | 90 |
January 9th, 2008 | N/A | N/A | 4th/4 sites tested | 328 |
September 20th, 2007 | 35th/40 sites tested | 720 | 32nd/40 sites tested | 550 |
June 25th, 2007 | N/A | N/A | 4th/4 sites tested | 635 |
March 28th, 2007 | 37th/40 sites tested | 179 | 35th/40 sites tested | 113 |
The Maryland state standards for Enterococci bacteria are:
All Areas: | 33 |
Frequent Full Body Contact Recreation: | 61 |
Moderately Frequent Full Body Contact Recreation: | 78 |
Occasional Frequent Full Body Contact Recreation: | 107 |
Infrequent Full Body Contact Recreation: | 151 |
All numbers are counts per 100 milliliters
2004-2005 Water Quality Testing
The Anacostia Watershed Society’s Water Quality Specialist Masaya Maeda conducted bacteria testing of Sligo Creek. This important work led to the WSSC’s present monitoring.