NAME: Hayden Hedrick
 

PROJECT TITLE: Water Quality Analysis Based on Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria Found in Local Lakes

Water quality is an issue that affects everyone.  Locally, contamination of surface waters has led to recommendations to restrict the amount of fish that can be safely consumed.  In the tri-state area, there are pay-to-fish lakes that allow individuals to fish and keep the fish that they have caught.  Examples are Burlington Lake in Burlington, Ohio, and Sky Lake in Chesapeake, Ohio.  These lakes have no restrictions on how many fish a fisher may keep or consume.  There are different water systems that are being used to fill and circulate water in the two lakes mentioned above.  In Burlington Lake, they are continuously pumping water from groundwater into the lake.  Sky Lake pumps water from Symmes Creek.   Symmes creek is a tributary of the Ohio River, and the Ohio EPA has placed restrictions on the amount of fish to be consumed from Symmes Creek and the Ohio River.  The restriction has been placed on channel catfish of one meal (8 ounces for adults, 3 ounces for children under the age of 6) every two months due to PCB contamination.

There are other ways to exam the water quality of a body of water than doing a chemical analysis: such ways include the measure of antibiotic resistant bacteria found in those waters.  This experiment will measure the amount of those bacteria in each of four water systems.  A sample of water will be taken on a weekly basis from each of the following: Sky Lake, Symmes Creek, Burlington Lake, and underground water source.  An addition sample will be taken from each location immediately after rainfall to determine if run-offs contribute to the existence of antibiotic resistant bacteria.  Each sample will be grown on selective media containing an antibiotic each week.  These will be allowed to incubate at room temperature and the number of colonies will be recorded for each.  A control will be used to verify that bacteria are present in these waters; a high nutrient agar will be used to allow ultimate growth of the bacteria.  Data analysis of the results will follow at the conclusion of the ten week program.

Water quality is important to everyone, so is the quality of the fish that you consume.  In this case, the people that fish in these pay-to-fish lakes are allowed to keep and consume as much as they would like without any concern of health issues that may arise.  The potential findings of this research are important because with the increase in the use and disposal of antibiotics, bacteria have become resistant to many types of antibiotics.  Exposure from these bacteria, either in the drinking water or aquatic animals, could increase the risk of potential health problems and the need for more antibiotics to compensate the bacterial resistance.