Bacteria Levels in Sligo Creek

2007-present

As a result of the consent decree, the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission (WSSC) began monitoring regional waterways for levels of fecal bacteria, including bacteria source testing. Here are the results so far for Sligo Creek:

DateSligo Upstream Site RankingFecal Bacteria Results
Enterococcus CFU/100mL		Sligo Downstream Site RankingFecal Bacteria Results
Enterococcus CFU/100mL
September 21st, 200939th/40 sites tested84840th/40 sites tested877
June 26th, 2009N/AN/A4rd/4 sites tested187
March 24th, 200935th/40 sites tested7829th/40 sites tested23
November 19th, 2008N/AN/A4rd/4 sites tested57
September 17th, 200827th/40 sites tested30835th/40 sites tested483
July 9th, 2008N/AN/A3rd/4 sites tested50
March 26th, 20081st/40 sites tested
(tied with 25 other sites)		<1038th/40 sites tested90
January 9th, 2008N/AN/A4th/4 sites tested328
September 20th, 200735th/40 sites tested72032nd/40 sites tested550
June 25th, 2007N/AN/A4th/4 sites tested635
March 28th, 200737th/40 sites tested17935th/40 sites tested113



The Maryland state standards for Enterococci bacteria:
All Areas: 33
Frequent Full Body Contact Recreation:61
Moderately Frequent Full Body Contact Recreation:78
Occasional Frequent Full Body Contact Recreation:107
Infrequent Full Body Contact Recreation:151
All numbers are counts per 100 milliliters


2004-2005

The Anacostia Watershed Society's Water Quality Specialist Masaya Maeda did bacteria testing of Sligo Creek. This important work led to the WSSC's present monitoring.