Lake Watch goes hi-tech with AU microbiologist
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Wenjing conducts microbial source tracking analysis at AU

In the past year, Lake Watch of Lake Martin reported high levels of E. coli (fecal contamination) flushing off the watershed in streams above the lake. This presents a bacterial contamination risk to our Treasured Lake, which is something nobody wants. Lake Watch uses the Coliscan Easygel bacterial plating method, supported by Alabama Water Watch, to test for E. coli, the bacteria that indicate fecal contamination from warm-blooded animals. The test is easy, reliable and affordable (about $3 per test); however, it does not give information on the source of fecal contamination.

Enter Auburn University professor Dr. Yucheng Feng and her enterprising graduate student Wenjing Ren. I had collaborated with Dr. Feng over the past few decades before I retired from AU. She is a top-notch microbiologist in the Department of Crop, Soil and Environmental Sciences at AU and an expert in microbial source tracking. MST refers to scientific analysis of genetic material of microbes (like E. coli) that originated in the gut of a warm-blooded animal and was passed via feces into the environment, in this case a stream or our lake.Â