Federation Blog

As you drive ovet the South River bridge, you will notice a large Red Flag- this flag represents that the majority of the stations on the South River are high in bacteria

The bacteria results are very indicative of the rain event that we had yesterday morning coupled with the Canada Goose problem in a couple of communities.

Above is the Enterococci bacteria results from 8-3-2011 sampling, as per the EPA BEACHs Act guidance document and the Maryland Department of the Environment's bacteria sampling; the concentration must be lower 104 (cfu/100ml) colony forming units/100ml. The bacteria results for several areas are above the limit of 104 colony forming units/100ml. Please remember that the guidance the State of Maryland gives is that there should be no primary contact with the South River after a rain event such as the one earlier this week, so please everyone take the proper precautions, shower after swimming, cover or do not go into the river with open wounds. The most at risk are children, elderly, immune compromised, and pregnant.

On a separate note: As the temperature of the water increases Vibrio growth as well- there has been a case recently of a elderly man with a Vibrio infection last week. Please use caution when recreating in the South River. If you do acquire a suspicious infection, see your doctor immediately as it is important to treat this infection as quickly as possible. If you or someone you know happens to get sick or gets an infection as a result of swimming in the water, please let us know and fill out the attached form and return it to us. The AA County Health Department has a great fact sheet on Vibrio, which is attached. Vibrio is found naturally occurring in all waters, but as the temperature increases so does the concentration of this bacteria.

With the extremely hot temperatures bacteria concentrations may proliferate in areas that are already contaminated. Please, pick up your pet waste and do not feed the ducks or geese. Leaving the shoreline un-mowed and using items that are sparkly will deter the waterfowl from coming ashore causing the bacteria contamination.

Take Care Swimming or Recreating,

Sincerely,

Diana

Good Morning All,

This weeks bacteria data had two communites that were above the allowable limit of 104cfu/100ml. These were Hillsmere and Pine Whiff. Congrats to the Glen Isle community for defeting the Canada Geese, I hope the deterants work all summer!!

Diana, South RIVERKEEPER

Good Afternoon,

There were three locations of higher that the allowable concentration of bacteria (104cfu/100ml). These creeks are Warehouse Creek, Almshouse Creek, and Church Creek. Glen Isle has been preventing the Canada Geese by stringing CD's in the area to prevent the geese from landing, must be working because for the past two weeks the counts have been good. Congratulations to them!!

This week's bacteria results, for the most part the results are below 104 colony forming units/ 100ml- which indicate a better swimming/recreating environment. ---Diana

From the mouth of the South River all the way to Bacon Ridge Branch, over 40 South River Federation volunteers participated in the 7^th Annual South River Snapshot.  Volunteers spread out across the entire South River watershed on the morning of Saturday, April 9^th and conducted water quality tests to assess the River’s health.   Although the data represents just a “snapshot” in time, collecting the data from over 40 sites around the River simultaneously, and doing it at about the same time each year, gives a good general barometer of the relative health of our streams and creeks.  While most of the sites had safe or normal bacteria levels, a few sites did have high levels.  You can see the bacteria results on Diana’s blog. 
Patch.com wrote a nice article on the Snapshot!  Click here to read it.

The Enterococci data is now ready from this last Saturday's South River Federation's 7th Annual Snapshot.

On Friday the short rain event was only 0.38 inches of rain, but even with that small amount there were some spikes of bacteria in our watershed.  For a single sampling event the criteria is 104 cfu/100ml (colony forming units/100milliliters).  Therefore in the map above, anything in orange or red is higher than the State of Maryland's limit.

Thanks to our great volunteers I am now going back through the past 7 years of data and preparing a 'trend" analysis to find why our hot spot are HOT.  One stations is HIL 1, this is located in the Hillsmere community and is consistently high every year- now that we have the data to prove that there is a problem (thanks to our volunteers)- We can see what we can do to fix the issues.---Diana