AN INTENSIVE INTERDEPARTMENTAL APPROACH TO REDUCING FECAL COLIFORM LEVELS IN A MAJOR STREAM BASIN IN THE CITY OF RALEIGH, NORTH CAROLINA

This paper presents a cooperative effort of two departments in the City of Raleigh, North Carolina to reduce fecal coliform bacteria levels in an urban stream in the City for the protection of the stream and in anticipation of the possible issuance of a Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) for the stream by the State of North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources Division of Water Quality (DWQ).This paper will present this effort to reduce fecal coliform in the stream, the field evaluation measures used, the sanitary sewer rehabilitation methods used to correct problems found and the successes of this effort. In addition, the progress of a related bacteria source tracking project to identify the sources of the fecal coliform, efforts to utilize E. coli analyses to replace fecal coliform analyses and the high fecal coliform levels coming off the City solid waste trucks are discussed.This paper is organized into the following sections:City of Raleigh and Pigeon House Creek BackgroundEfforts to Reduce Fecal Coliform LevelsSolid Waste Services ConcernsBacteria Source Tracking Project and Fecal Coliform / E. coli ComparisonClosing Comments and Lessons Learned