Sewage Leaching Into Oceans in Florida

When landfills and cess pits are located too close to any kind of body of water, many problems can arise. The fecal matter from the sewages and cess pits often leach into the soil, and if controlled properly, they do not pose much of a threat to the health of humans and aquatic organisms. However, in many cases, these sewage systems are not properly managed and controlled, and as the fecal matter leaches into the soil, it can get into ground water which evidently ends up in larger bodies of water. It is not the fecal matter itself which can be harmful, but the viruses and bacteria that inhabit the fecal matter. A category of viruses called enteric viruses are viruses that live in the intestinal tract (and therefore are plentiful in human waste) and they can cause infections and diseases in humans and other organisms. In a study performed by Erin Lipp, and doctoral student Carrie Futch from the University of Georgia, along with Dale Griffin of the U.S. Geological Survey in Tallahassee, coral reefs and water columns near Florida Keys was tested for the presence of these enteric viruses. The study is called “Analysis of multiple enteric viral targets as sewage markers in coral reefs” and it was performed during the years 2001, 2002, and 2003.

The secondary source that I found was an article from the Innovations Report entitled “Study finds contaminated water reaching Florida’s offshore keys” written by Sam Fahmy, which was reporting on the findings of the study authored by Lipp. There were many similarities between the secondary article and the primary journal article, but there were also a few things that I found that were reported differently in the secondary article. For one, the actual study is much more detailed in the explanation of the method they used to extract the enteric viruses from the samples and they explain their data a lot more thoroughly in the primary article. The secondary article did not give any real data at all, but just talked about the results and the conclusion taken from the study.

The study performed by the University of Georgia collected coral mucus and water samples and tested for enteric viruses present in those samples. They collected 100 coral and water samples throughout the Florida Keys national Marine Sanctuary and the Dry Tortugas and the study went on for three years. The article in which the results were reported also states that the study went on for three years, but the article did not mention how many samples were collected. It did say however that the samples were collected in five different sites. In the actual study, genetic material was extracted from the enteric viruses and was tested for to see whether they caused diseases in humans and it was found that they do. The secondary article reported this correctly as they stated that “Genetic material from enteric viruses, which cause disease in humans but are only found in infected human feces and urine, also were commonly found throughout the sampled area...” (Fahmy 2007).

A difference that I found between the two articles was that the secondary article described that common fecal indicator bacteria were analyzed, and these indicator fecal bacteria showed how much of the waste matter from the sewages and cess pits were leaking into the ground water. However this is a major difference from what the primary journal article reported, as they said that they analyzed for enteric viruses instead of indicator fecal bacteria because the enteric viruses show more clearly whether the reefs and the water have been contaminated than the indicator bacteria and viruses do. The study states that, “These viral based approaches have demonstrated susceptibility of near shore, offshore and outlying reefs to wastewater contamination when the traditional fecal indicator bacteria levels suggested ‘no evidence of contamination’” (Lipp 2007).

The original article also stated some restrictions that the secondary article failed to mention. The secondary source made it seem as though the study was now fully complete and the treatment was the only thing left to do, but the original article talked about how additional work would need to be done in order for the study to be truly complete. The next part of the study would be to determine whether another type of virus called adenovirus could be used as a marker of human sewage as well, but this cannot be done as of right now. The primary article claims that because RNA and DNA-based viruses are different enough, we cannot tell if adenovirus can be used as a marker. This is a limitation that the secondary article did not mention.

The primary and the secondary articles both stated the same conclusion, and that was that there were more enteric viruses found closer to shore and in areas where the populations were larger. This makes sense, since there are more people in the highly populated places and therefore more fecal matter that is leaching into the ground water and contaminating the coral reefs and the water. Also, both articles say that there were more enteric viruses found in the surface layers of the coral mucus than in the water columns which were also sampled. The original study discusses this in more detail however and they state that because the viruses are trapped in the coral mucus, they are protected from UV degradation and therefore are more plentiful than they are in the water columns. Although there were a few differences between the two sources, I believe that the secondary journal article had enough similarities to the primary study, that it is a fair representation of the study that was performed.

References

Fahmy, S. (2007) Study finds contaminated water reaching florida’s offshore keys. Innovations Report, 26 july 2007. http://www.innovations-report.com/html/reports/environment_sciences/report-87937.html. Accessed October 5, 2009.

Lipp, E., Futch, J., Griffin, D. (2007) Analysis of multiple enteric viral targets as sewage markers in coral reefs. Marine Pollution Bulletin. http://journals2.scholarsportal.info/tmp/9215686711381326070.pdf. Accessed October 5, 2009