The United States Geological Survey Water Resources Research Act Program: Grant Details for Project 2007KY103B

Details for Project ID 2007KY103B

Assessment of Pathogen Trends in the Upper Forks of the Kentucky River Basin

Institute: Kentucky
Year Established: 2007 Start Date: 2007-03-01 End Date: 2008-02-29
Total Federal Funds: $19,022 Total Non-Federal Funds: $38,212

Principal Investigators: Chandramouli Viswanathan

Abstract: Since its formation in 1997, the Personal Responsibility in a Desirable Environment (PRIDE) initiative has helped coordinate several U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (COE) and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) wastewater projects in a 40 county region in southeastern Kentucky. In order to evaluate the effectiveness of these projects, the Kentucky Water Resources Research Institute was contracted in 2000 to develop a comprehensive monitoring program in support of PRIDE. This program resulted in the collection of pathogen data at approximately 80 stations over a six year period. Due to the pre-mature termination of the PRIDE initiative due to federal budget cuts, a comprehensive statistical analysis of the data was never performed, thus limiting the utility of the collected data. This study will improve the usefulness of historically collected PRIDE pathogen data by providing a statistical assessment of the data for the three 8-digit HUC watersheds that form the upper tributaries of the Kentucky River Basin. The statistical analysis should provide a basis for assessing the impact of recent wastewater projects in the region as well as a basis for identifying continued areas of concern. Such information should be useful to local citizens and governmental officials in assessing the conditions of their local streams. The information should also be useful to state officials in the development of TMDLs for those streams that still fail to meet their designated use for primary and secondary contact standards. Once completed, the results of the study will be posted on a project specific website that will be directly linked to the Kentucky Water Resources Research Institute website.