___________________________________________________________________________________________
News
Release
Friday, August 24, 2007
MEDIA CONTACTS
Christopher Sheid
Specialist, OMC
219-980-6802
ccsheid@iun.edu
Michelle Searer
Director, OMC
219-980-6686
msearer@iun.edu
PROGRAM CONTACT
Kizhanipuram Vinodgopal, Ph.D.
Professor of Chemistry
IU Northwest Department of Chemistry/Physics/Astronomy
219-980-6688
kvinod@iun.edu
IU
Northwest chemistry profs receive $120,000 grant to study faster water-testing
methods at local beaches using chemical indicators
Research
could speed up water testing at
Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water
... two Indiana University Northwest professors are looking for quicker testing
methods to tell you whether it really is.
As Northwest Indiana’s last beach holiday of the year, Labor Day,
approaches, IU Northwest Professor of Chemistry Kizhanipuram Vinodgopal, Ph.D.,
of LaPorte, and Assistant Professor of Chemistry Julie Peller, Ph.D., of
Chesterton, are preparing to begin a two-year, $120,000 study on chemical
indicators, or markers, in area lake waters that they say may allow for quicker
analysis of E.coli levels at local beaches. Peller and Vinodgopal, in
conjunction with researchers Richard Whitman, Ph.D., and Muruleedhara
Byappanahalli, Ph.D., of the United States Geological Survey’s (USGS)
Great Lakes Research Station, obtained $80,000 of the funding from a recent
Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant (IISG) award. The balance of the funds will come
from an IU Northwest matching grant.
A longstanding concern with regard to water testing has been the length of time
it takes to confirm elevated E.coli levels in lake water through
microbiological testing, the results of which typically take 24 hours to confirm.
This has led local authorities in some cases to close beaches after heavy rains
or other conditions favorable to E.coli contamination, just in case elevated
bacteria levels might be present. As Vinodgopal pointed out, even unnecessary
closures can have negative consequences.
“If it’s a false closure, that means a lot of money that is
potentially being lost in terms of tourism revenue, etc. If it’s a real
closure, the question is whether it was closed in time to prevent people from
swimming in the water,” he said. “So there is a fairly good amount
at stake in this.”
Chemical analysis, Peller explained, can be carried out much more quickly than
testing for the bacteria itself, with results coming back in just a few hours
or less. The goal of this study is to identify chemical markers that reliably
occur in tandem with E.coli bacteria, meaning that if the chemical in question
is found to be present in lake water in elevated amounts, it’s safe to
assume that bacteria levels are also elevated. Such markers could also reveal
the nature and source of the contamination.
“One of the issues our study focuses on is where this bacteria originates
from,” Peller said. “Is it a human source or an animal source? Is
it coming from overflow of sewage treatment plants, or is it coming from animal
feces?”
Vinodgopal and Peller said they are not the first researchers to consider
chemical analysis as an alternative to microbiological testing. But the
longtime IU Northwest scientists and educators have some interesting theories
about what types of chemicals might prove to be reliable harbingers of E.coli
contamination.
“There are many chemicals that are produced by a wastewater treatment
plant,” Vinodgopal said. “It’s a question of identifying the
chemical appropriately and being able to use that chemical to devise a test
that is cheap enough and reliable enough.”
So, what sorts of chemicals might accompany E.coli in wastewater? The kind
found in laundry detergent, Vinodgopal said.
“Almost 15 to 20 percent of the water that pumps through a wastewater
plant in a typical urban setting is from laundry use,” he explained.
“Chemicals that are used as whiteners and brighteners abundantly in all
detergents will, we believe, be a good marker for identifying this kind of discharge.
That’s the starting point. We’ll go on to other methods of
detection, as well.
“We believe that, by the end of the project, we will be in a position to
use these chemical markers to make much quicker identification of bacterial
contamination,” he said.
The partnership with USGS is crucial, Peller said, because Whitman and
Byappanahalli have years of experience sampling and testing the waters along
“They have a lot of experience in how to sample and where to
sample,” Peller said of the USGS participants.
This IISG-funded project comes at a time when issues surrounding Lake
Michigan’s water quality have commanded regional and even national
attention, due both to concerns about E.coli-related beach closures and to the
recent controversy surrounding oil giant BP’s proposal to increase lake
discharges from its Whiting, Ind. refinery.
“I feel that this is a very timely issue, because the
“There is a lot of public interest in
IISG is one of 32 programs nationwide that makes up the National Sea Grant network,
which is the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s primary
university-based research program in support of
# # #