Monitoring Fecal Contamination of Marine Waters by Measuring C. Perfringens Spores in the Sediments

Monitoring strategies for measuring fecal contamination of coastal and estuarine waters, notably that due to municipal wastewater discharges, may have any of several objectives. One objective of such monitoring programs is to examine long-term national trends on the effectiveness of programs to remove the wastewater discharge from those waters which are or potentially are the sources of recreational and shellfish resources. It would appear that the measurement of C. perfringens spores in bottom sediments is ideally suited for this purpose. The assays can be conducted on grab, core or trap samples. The samples can be archived for at least a year under refrigeration or even frozen, although the assays are simple and rapid enough so that the data are readily available. The sensitivity, precision and accuracy of the measurement are excellent; and, above all, samples need only be collected annually unless there is a specific requirement for more frequent sampling. In this paper, we document some of the attributes of the measurement and provide some examples of its use.