Diana Hou

Project Title:"Rapid detection of E. coli in beach water samples form Lake Michigan"

External Partnership: Holly Wirick, EPA Region 5, BEACH Program

The beaches along the Great Lakes have been plagued for years by bacterial contamination as the number of people that visit the shoreline increases and wildlife and urban pollutants increase. In 2006 for Lake Michigan, at least 28 beaches closed along the Illinois coast and 17.5% of the beaches monitored were closed along Wisconsin’s coast. Illnesses caused by exposure/ingestion of these bacteria typically are vomiting, diarrhea, and serious dehydration for smaller children or immune compromised individuals. Therefore, there is a need to monitor the bacteria concentration in beach water because of the threat it poses to human health. The EPA standard method to detect the bacteria still requires a laboratory to culture the sample over 24 hours because of the low bacteria counts in the samples. Therefore results are at least 24 hours behind the current status of the water, creating an inaccurate depiction of the quality of the water. However, these are the most reliable tools the EPA has and beach managers must decide on the status of the beaches based on these delayed results. Thus there is a need to develop a field-ready bacteria detection kit so that there is an accurate depiction of the beach water quality. However, current standards to monitor the bacteria counts in these beach waters are not regulated, enforced and not required for all beaches. Due to the cost and time commitment of testing and transporting samples to the laboratories, many of the beaches along Michigan and Wisconsin are not even tested while others are only tested once a week.

In her research, Diana developed a rapid bacteria detection kit to be used at the beaches. This detection kit allows on-the-spot water samples that give results within an hour. This field-ready kit eliminates the time and cost in transportation of the samples from the beaches to the laboratories allowing for more beaches to be monitored on a daily basis. It also eliminate the 24 hour turn around time, and is able to give an accurate depiction of the current beach water quality. Thus the public can be notified of beach closures and warnings and be constantly updated on the status of the beach water.

Distinctive Outcomes: Since her involvement with CAC, Diana has gotten a job in nanotechnology. She is involved in on-going research.