Characterization of Urban Stormwater in the Menomonee River Alissa Salmore, Erika Jensen, and Sandra McLellan

Acknowledgements: Erika Jensen, Hilary Street, Michelle Leubke, Josh Harris, Magnolia Tulod Source: Milwaukee Valley Partnership Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District Charles A. and Anne Morrow Lindbergh Foundation

bacteria from rivers enters harbor, and may also impact beach areas localized stormwater runoff severely impairs water quality Milwaukee Harbor E. coli surveys in 2001

Source: Wisconsin DNR

Determine river E. coli levels during baseflow and stormflow Determine E. coli levels of inline stormwater entering river Characterize “genetic profile” of E. coli in stormwater Next step: Investigate bacterial loading from stormwater into rivers

Menomonee River Transect Suburban, suburban industrial Natural channel and bed Urban, industrial Iron piling/cement channel Natural bed Urban, Concrete bed Urban, Rehabilitated bed Avg. inline stormwater E. coli level: 150,000 CFU/100ml

E. coli levels in the Menomonee following a storm event

Mg/L E. Coli CFU/ 100 mL Baseflow Stormflow Inline stormwater Bonus data: chemistry base, storm n=40; inline n=15

Baseflow Stormflow Inline stormwater Comparison of metals in dry and wet flows Mg/L

Comparison of nutrients in dry and wet flows Baseflow Stormflow Inline stormwater Mg/L

Comparison of conductivity in dry and wet flows Site Ohms

Comparison of other stuff between dry and wet flows Mg/L Baseflow Stormflow Inline stormwater

What is a DNA fingerprint? ? ? ? Cow E. coli Gull E. coli Human E. coli

Relative genetic diversity of E. coli host strains Host GroupNo. of Isolates Range of diversity 1 Sewage to 29.2% Gull to 21.8% Cattle to 41.9% Stormwater to 41.0% Pelican to 31.7% 1 Percent similarity of rep PCR fingerprint patterns calculated by the Pearson coefficient 2 Outgroup

REP PCR fingerprint patterns of host strains Clade No. of isolates No. of host source isolates in clade sewagegullcattlestormwaterpelicans I II6 6 III4 14 IV V3 3 VI5 122 VII2 11 VIII4 4 IX3 12 X XI XII23 185

Conclusions: Stormwater transports high levels of E. coli to river during storm events Stormwater entering the river dilutes some chemicals but can cause other contaminants to spike Stormwater DNA fingerprint “profile” may be useful to rule out other suspected host sources that are in DNA fingerprint library

Can we come up with an index for stormwater load?? source: Gulf Coast BigFoot Research Organization