It's
A Bugs Life!
Environment
Agency
The Environment Agency
has a new weapon in its arsenal - tiny bugs to help it pin point the source
of pollution
in the region's rivers and streams.
Until recently, tracing
the source of pollution was a time consuming and costly business, but
now the whole
detection process has been speeded up thanks to the use biological tracers
or 'bugs'.
The technology has
already been put to good use in Cornwall where Environment Agency officers
were having
difficulty tracing the source of pollution on a watercourse near St Columb.
It was suspected high ammonia levels were being caused by leaking septic
tanks or soakaway systems at properties in the area. A preliminary investigation
failed to identify the source.
Officers decided
to unleash their latest weapon - B.globigii and S. marcens,
two harmless microbial spores
that were introduced to the septic tanks of two suspect adjacent properties
upstream of the polluted stretch of
river. An automatic water sampling device was located downstream to test
for the presence of the biological
tracers.
Within hours of dosing
each septic tank, the downstream sampler contained large numbers of spores
identified
through subsequent analysis of water samples. This provided clear evidence
that both septic tanks were
faulty and discharging polluting material to surface waters. The Environment
Agency is now working with the
owners of each property to find a solution to the problem.
"Without
the use of tracers like this it would have taken a lot longer to find
out which of the septic tanks
were at fault. This is the first time we have used two different microbial
spore tracers at the same time and
it has worked very well. We are very pleased with the results,"
said Lisa Best for the Environment Agency.
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