FECAL BACTERIA INDICATOR TO DETERMINE POINT-SOURCE POLLUTION ABOVE THE CITY OF PITTSBURGH, WESTERN PENNSYLVANIA, USA

Fecal bacteria loading has been identified as a major concern for the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and its surrounding rivers. The current explanation of the source of the fecal bacteria loading has been the cities approximate 290 combined sewer overflows during heavy precipitation events, which overload the aging waste water infrastructure. However, water samples taken above the city of Pittsburgh have high levels of fecal coliform, which suggests that fecal bacteria loading are occurring above the city. The water samples were taken on the Allegheny River at Parker, Pennsylvania. Out of twenty-four water samples taken nine were over the EPA limit of 200 CFU / 100 mL of fecal coliform. All nine samples that were over the EPA limit correlated with heavy precipitation events in the surrounding watershed. Additional water samples were taken both upstream and downstream of Oil City on the Allegheny River, and analyzed for Escherichia Coli to determine point source loading of fecal bacteria.