[Occurrence of fecal indicator bacteria in urban surface water: a case study in southern China]

With the increasing public recreational access to urban surface water, it is of critical importance for densely populated urban areas to study the occurrence of fecal pollution, conduct health risk assessment, and accordingly implement effective monitoring program and risk management. Five typical urban surface water bodies were selected in a southern city in China, and total coliforms (TC), fecal coliforms (FC), Escherichia coli (EC), enterococci (ENT), and some other water quality indexes were monitored. The occurrence and the temporal and spatial distribution of the four fecal indicator bacteria were studied, and furthermore the correlations among the four indicator bacteria and the other water quality indexes were examined. TC and FC in the studied water bodies generally ranged from 10(3) L(-1) to 10(7) L(-1), while EC and ENT usually varied below 200 L(-1) and 10(5) L(-1) respectively. The four fecal indicator bacteria were observed to vary seasonally and could also indicate the pollution from surroundings. Statistically significant correlations were identified among the four fecal indicator bacteria as well as between them and the other water quality indexes, e. g. dissolved oxygen.