FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

June 28, 2006

Contacts

E. coli Grow in Beach Sand

Ann Arbor, MI — When sewage contaminates a swimming beach, the bacteria may remain in the sand. E. coli thrives in Great Lakes shoreline sand.

"Beach managers have been puzzled by the presence of fecal indicator bacteria in swimming water even when there is no obvious source of contamination," states Elizabeth Alm, a microbiologist at Central Michigan University in Mount Pleasant, Mich. "The source of these bacteria in the water may be resident in the sand."

Alm and fellow researchers studied the potential for the fecal indicator bacteria E. coli to survive and grow in Lake Huron beach sand. They found that during the warm summer months E. coli were able to grow to very high numbers in the sand and to remain at high levels for several weeks.

Original Publication Information

Results of this study "Persistence and Potential Growth of the Fecal Indicator Bacteria, Escherichia coli, in Shoreline Sand at Lake Huron," are reported by Elizabeth Wheeler Alm, Janice Burke and Erin Hagan in the latest issue (Volume 32, No. 2, pp. 401-405) of the Journal of Great Lakes Research, published by the International Association for Great Lakes Research, 2006.

Contacts

For more information about the study, contact Elizabeth Alm, Department of Biology, Central Michigan University, Mount Pleasant, Michigan 48859; alm1ew@cmich.edu; (989) 774-2503.

For information about the Journal of Great Lakes Research, contact Marlene Evans, Editor, National Water Research Institute, 11 Innovation Boulevard, Saskatoon, SK, S7N 3H5, Canada; editor@iaglr.org; (608) 692-1076.

Links

Since 1967, IAGLR has served as the focal point for compiling and disseminating multidisciplinary knowledge on North America's Laurentian Great Lakes and other large lakes of the world and their watersheds. In part, IAGLR communicates this knowledge through publication of the Journal of Great Lakes Research, available to members in print and electronic form. A searchable archive of the journal is available online and includes the abstracts of articles from the journal's inception in 1975 through the most recent issue. In addition, complete articles are available to members who have signed up for an electronic subscription.