E. coli
The main source of E. coli contamination is drinking in water sources below cattle ranches. The cows poop in the streams and the waste contains E. coli. That’s usually not a concern in the Bay Area. 99% of positive E. coli testing comes from toilet overflows.
Escherichia coli (E. coli), is one of the main species of bacteria living in the lower intestines of mammals, known as gut flora. Discovered in 1885 by Theodor Escherich, a German pediatrician, and bacteriologist, E. coli are abundant: the number of individual E. coli bacteria in the feces that a human excretes in one-day averages between 100 billion and 10 trillion. However, the bacteria are not confined to this environment, and specimens have also been located, for example, on the edge of hot springs. The E. coli strain O157:H7 is one of the hundreds of strains of the bacterium that causes illness in humans.
As Gram-negative organisms, E. coli are unable to sporulate. Thus, treatments which kill all active bacteria, such as pasteurization or simple boiling, are effective for their eradication, without requiring the most rigorous sterilization which also deactivates spores.
Because of their adaptation to mammalian intestines, E. coli grows best in vivo or at the higher temperatures’ characteristic of such an environment, rather than the cooler temperatures found in soil and other environments.
Fecal Coliforms
Fecal Coliforms (sometimes fecal Coliforms) are facultatively anaerobic, rod-shaped, gram-negative, non-sporulating bacteria. They are capable of growth in the presence of bile salts or similar surface agents, oxidase negative, and produce acid and gas from lactose within 48 hours at 44 ± 0.5º C. The fecal coliform assay should only be used to assess the presence of fecal matter in situations where fecal Coliforms of non-fecal origin are not commonly encountered.
Fecal Coliforms include the genera that originate in feces; Escherichia as well as genera that are not of fecal origin; Enterobacter, Klebsiella, and Citrobacter. The assay is intended to be an indicator of fecal contamination or more specifically E. coli which is an indicator microorganism for other pathogens that may be present in feces.
Coliforms naturally occur in soil.
Normally this testing is performed after a known or suspected sewage spill or backup has occurred.
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All costs for our services are discussed and outlined clearly in our proposal before the project and again onsite before any sampling is collected.