Understanding the impact in population of E. coli in streams close to Acid Mine Drainage (AMD)

Acid Mine Drainage (AMD) is the most persistent environmental pollution problem, which affects worldwide streams that are close to metal mines. The AMD is the product of the natural oxidation of sulfide minerals in mining wastes (Sheoran et. al 2010).  The AMD is recognized by the low pH that can produce by the oxidation process of metals. This process develops an acidic product that enters to a stream affecting many organisms, such as E. coli.  This warm blood bacterium is at high concentrations in many worldwide streams causing contamination on water bodies, but when streams turn acidic, E. coli is affected by low pH.  This is because this organism cannot live at pH 2.0 for large periods of time (Mehsen et. al, 2010). In order to understand how the population of E. coli is affected by the AMD, the following methods are applied: collecting samples of E. coli in three different parts of the transect (upstream, middle stream and downstream) in order to quantify the population. The results will be analyzed making dilutions with water of 1:1 for E. coli samples. After the dilution, samples are located in an incubator with UV light for quantify the presence of E. coli in each quantity tray. The objective of this research is to understand how the population of E.coli can be affected before and after the Acid Mine Drainage impact and how the E. coli population varies at different pH trough a stream near to Ely Mine.