Citizen science-based water quality monitoring: Constructing a large database to characterize the impacts of combined sewer overflow in New York City

Abstract

To protect recreational water users from waterborne pathogen exposure, it is crucial that waterways are monitored for the presence of harmful bacteria. In NYC, a citizen science campaign is monitoring waterways impacted by inputs of storm water and untreated sewage during periods of rainfall. However, the spatial and temporal scales over which the monitoring program can sample are constrained by cost and time, thus hindering the construction of databases that benefit both scientists and citizens. In this study, we first illustrate the scientific value of a citizen scientist monitoring campaign by using the data collected through the campaign to characterize the seasonal variability of sampled bacterial concentration as well as its response to antecedent rainfall. Second, we examine the efficacy of the HyServe Compact Dry ETC method, a lower cost and time-efficient alternative to the EPA-approved IDEXX Enterolert method for fecal indicator monitoring, through a paired sample comparison of IDEXX and HyServe (total of 424 paired samples). The HyServe and IDEXX methods return the same result for over 80% of the samples with regard to whether a water sample is above or below the EPA's recreational water quality criteria for a single sample of 110 enterococci per 100mL. The HyServe method classified as unsafe 90% of the 119 water samples that were classified as having unsafe enterococci concentrations by the more established IDEXX method. This study seeks to encourage other scientists to engage with citizen scientist communities and to also pursue the development of cost- and time-efficient methodologies to sample environmental variables that are not easily collected or analyzed in an automated manner.

The benefits and negative impacts of citizen science applications to water as experienced by participants and communities

“…Time consuming or boring, and difficulty of tasks: These issues are often mentioned from the point of view of being potentially demotivational for participants, therefore, they may reduce their participation or stop altogether (Canfield, Brown, Bachmann, & Hoyer, 2002; Farnham et al, 2017). Preventing a project from becoming boring is particularly important to maintain interest of underrepresented youth (Gérin‐Lajoie et al, 2018).…”

Feature Extraction of Marine Water Pollution Based on Data Mining

“…Farnham et al used the compact dry method (Hyserve) and the intestinal volume method (IDEXX) to monitor the water environment and its pathogen hazards, which is not easy to automatically sample. The results showed that although the detection efficiency of Hyserve method was slightly lower than IDEXX method, it could also detect more than 80% of water pathogenic bacteria pollution, and the detection cost and efficiency were higher [2]. John F. Griffith et al proposed using molecular methods to monitor beach water quality and analyze the relationship between water quality and health risk of gastrointestinal diseases.…”

Urban Hydroinformatics: Past, Present and Future

“…It is also increasingly collected by the citizens/water users themselves. For example, the paper-based water quality sensor and smartphone that was used in Sicard et al [33], or work by Farnham et al [34] on using citizen-based water quality monitoring for combined sewer overflows.…”