Rice
University scientists have released the first results of extensive water
sampling in Houston after the epic flooding caused by Hurricane Harvey. They
found widespread contamination by E. coli, likely the result of overflow from
flooded wastewater treatment plants.
The microbial
survey showed high levels of E. coli, a fecal indicator organism,
trapped in homes that still contained stagnant water weeks after the storm, as
well as high levels of key genes that indicate antibiotic resistance.
The
study led by Rice environmental engineer Lauren Stadler appears in the American
Chemical Society journal Environmental Science & Technology Letters. A pair
of National Science Foundation RAPID grants helped the team collect and analyze
samples.
Early
samples from each location carried elevated levels of E. coli. But most
striking was the fact that sampled water and, later, sediment showed abundant
levels of two indicator genes, sul1 and intI1, that mark the presence of
antibiotic-resistant bacteria, even weeks after the flood. In particular,
samples from floodwaters inside closed homes showed concentrations of sul1 were
250 times greater and intI1 60 times greater in than in bayou samples.
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