California Water News Daily Your Source For Water News in California
EPA’s Pacific Southwest Region recently announced the approval of a quick turn-around, DNA-based method to evaluate bacteria in San Diego County beach water.
This method was developed for beach use by the Southern California Coastal Water Research Project and implemented in collaboration with the California Department of Public Health (CDPH). By using this digital test to measure bacterial DNA in beach water, San Diego County beach managers will be able to provide same-day notices of beach water quality.
“We applaud San Diego County for further advancing the science in beach monitoring by piloting this innovative rapid test method,” said EPA Pacific Southwest Water Division Director Tomás Torres. “Same-day beach water quality results will facilitate more effective beach management decisions to ensure that beachgoers are protected moving forward.”
Harmful levels of bacteria in beach water typically last less than one day in California, but current beach water bacterial sampling methods require 18-24 hours to produce results. The delay between sample collection and public notification of results may leave beachgoers unknowingly exposed to harmful bacteria and slows the removal of signage restrictions when risks have abated. The digital droplet polymerase chain reaction (ddPCR) method not only significantly shortens the turnaround time between sampling and results to less than four hours on average but is also able to detect lower levels of bacterial exceedances than current testing methods.
Final approval of using ddPCR for regular beach monitoring will be determined by the success of this pilot program, with input from the California Department of Public Health and California’s Environmental Laboratory Accreditation Program.
For more information on beach water quality, please visit https://www.epa.gov/beaches.
