Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Fecal Microbe Contamination In The Otter Creek Watershed, Madison County, Kentucky, Jacob L. Robin, Walter S. Borowski

EKU Faculty and Staff Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Nutrient And Fecal Microbe Assessment Of The Water Quality Of Tates Creek, Madison County, Kentucky, Krisopher H. Carroll, Walter S. Borowski

EKU Faculty and Staff Scholarship

Tates Creek is a significant tributary to the Kentucky River that has shown high levels of microbial and nutrient pollution. We sampled the waters of Tates Creek comprehensively by occupying 25 stations along its 13-mile length, collecting stream water at the confluence of major tributaries from its headwaters to the Kentucky River. Samples were collected four times between May and August 2011 during dry periods as well as immediately after rainfall events.

We measured ammonium (NH₄⁺), nitrate (NO₃^-) and phosphate (PO₄^-) concentrations using colorimetry. Microbial samples were measured for total coliform …

Determination Of Caffeine As A Marker For Septic Tank Contamination Of Wilgreen Lake, Rosemary Onjiko, Susan Godbey, Walter S. Borowski, Darrin Smith, Lori Wilson

EKU Faculty and Staff Scholarship

Wilgreen Lake in Richmond, Kentucky, has been listed by both the state and the Environmental Protection Agency as an “impaired” lake due to excess nutrients, which may be in part contributed by domestic septic systems. Caffeine can be used as an anthropogenic marker to estimate the contribution of septic tank effluent to the lake. We have modified existing analytical methods to produce a viable method for the determination of caffeine in environmental water samples and applied the method to water samples collected from Wilgreen Lake. The modified method allows determination of caffeine in a concentration range of 75 to 10,000 …

Fecal Microbe Distribution And Abundance Used As A Possible Proxy For Nutrient Source Identification In Eutrophic Wilgreen Lake, Madison County, Kentucky, Theresa A. Aguiar, Walter S. Borowski

EKU Faculty and Staff Scholarship

Wilgreen Lake is a eutrophic lake that has been listed on the EPA’s 303d list as nutrient impaired. Potential sources of this impairment are from humans, cattle manure and fertilizers. We suspect that the majority of nutrients originate from human sources. As a possible proxy for nutrient input, we test our hypothesis by examining fecal microbe distribution and abundance in the lake.

We took water samples at 19 sampling locations on 4 occasions. Sampling spanned 26 June to 15 August with the last 3 sampling events occurring at roughly two-week intervals. These samples were then processed using IDEXX methods, which …

Preliminary Results Of A Fecal Microbe Survey In An Eutrophic Lake, Wilgreen Lake, Madison County, Kentucky, Walter S. Borowski, Michael S. Albright

EKU Faculty and Staff Scholarship

Wilgreen Lake is a small (~14 mi²) eutrophic lake formed by damming several tributary streams to Silver Creek, Madison County, Kentucky. The lake receives runoff from industrial and urban areas (Richmond) that comprise ~10% of the total watershed area; most runoff is from cattle pasture or human developments encircling the lake. Present and past developments are on septic systems, and effluent from these systems is known qualitatively to seep into lake waters.

Our research group is currently conducting a study of the lake in order to identify major nutrient sources, and one possible tracer method is to quantitatively …