Watershed Management Key To Preventing E-Coli Contamination
Better
management of human activity in drinking water watersheds is the best
way to prevent such tragedies as the current E. coli outbreak in Walkerton,
Ontario, says Dr. Asit Mazumder, a UVic aquatic ecologist. Mazumder
heads UVic's research chair in the environmental management of
drinking water--the only one of its kind in Canada. E. coli bacteria come from the
fecal wastes of mammals, and are rarely found in clean and
well-managed drinking water sources and their watersheds. Those few
bacteria that may be present are filtered out through natural
processes in the soil and water, says Mazumder. In Walkerton's case,
the drinking water comes from a deep well and the strain of
E. coli suggests
contamination from cattle or human waste. "People there probably
don't know where the underground reservoir, or aquifer, begins and
ends," says Mazumder. "Water utilities have a responsibility to find
this out and to educate the public about the wise use of land that
drains into the drinking water supplies."
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