Audiology freshman Abbey Smith hasn’t been at MSU for a year, yet she already has developed a less-than-favorable impression of the Red Cedar River.
“I always see garbage in it, especially over here by Brody (Complex),” she said.
For many students like Smith, the river presents a generally bad impression, but health officials now are starting to piece together a less obvious problem with the Red Cedar.
Answers concerning the Red Cedar’s high E. coli levels are starting to emerge.
After this year’s round of testing, the Ingham County Environmental Health Department has begun working with three dairy farms upriver from MSU that have been found to contribute to the high E. coli levels.
The health department has tracked E. coli levels in the Red Cedar during the last four years, drawing concerns over continually high levels.
The health department’s last two weeks of sampling for the year yielded average colony counts per milliliter of 603 and 560 - double the state’s guideline, according to figures gathered by Olin Health Center’s University Sanitarian Betty Wernette-Babian.
Wernette-Babian gathered samples for the health department at Farm Lane, Hagadorn Road and Kalamazoo Street.
But the health department found more dramatic numbers, providing a clue.
Pipes were found leading from the three farms that produced some staggering numbers, said F. Robert Godbold, director of the Ingham County Environmental Health Department.
“It has been the hottest tributary before it enters the Red Cedar for all three summers of testing and that begs the question, why is this tributary so dirty?” said Godbold.
“We’ve gotten E. coli counts that exceed 2 million from the pipes,” he said.
Numbers that high were eventually found to be a result of improper wastewater treatment from three dairy farms.
“It was a matter of cow waste getting into the tributaries of the Red Cedar,” Godbold said.
The Department of Environmental Quality has already brought action against one of the farms and is working with the Ingham County Conservation District to rectify the other two farm situations.
“We look at the practices - Where does the runoff go? How do you deal with the waste? - to develop a comprehensive plan for the whole farm,” said Megan McMahon, spokeswoman for the DEQ.
Even with the increased insight, the DEQ has turned its attention to preventing further problems, McMahon said.
“We’re working to develop a scientific survey to determine what the current residents’ level of information is concerning water quality, as well as what some of their practices are and what their concerns are,” she said.
Such information would allow the state agency to better develop management techniques.
But there is a more important aspect from the department’s point of view involves education, she said.
“You need people to understand what is going on before they can make any change.”
