Bight ’18 Microbiology element preparing to kick off field sampling for coliphage method evaluation study

Participants of the Southern California Bight 2018 Regional Monitoring Program’s Microbiology element will initiate field sampling in August for a study evaluating the relevance and reliability of using coliphage viruses to assess microbial water quality at Southern California beaches.

Six labs will conduct two years of sampling at 12 beaches spanning Ventura to San Diego County during both wet and dry weather.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency last year approved the coliphage-based method, officially known as EPA Method 1642, as an additional indicator to complement the established Enterococcus bacteria-based method for fecal contamination monitoring.

The Bight ’18 Microbiology element will do a side-by-side evaluation of how the Enterococcus and coliphage-based methods perform.