Democratizing water monitoring: Implementation of a community-based qPCR monitoring program for recreational water hazards.

Recreational water monitoring can be challenging due to the highly variable nature of pathogens and indicator concentrations, the myriad of potential biological hazards to measure for, and numerous access points, both official and unofficial, that are used for recreation. The aim of this study was to develop, deploy, and assess the effectiveness of a quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) community-based monitoring (CBM) program for the assessment of bacterial and parasitic hazards in recreational water. This study developed methodologies for performing qPCR 'in the field,' then engaged with water management and monitoring groups and tested the method in a real-world implementation study to evaluate the accuracy of CBM using qPCR both quantitatively and qualitatively. This study found high reproducibility between qPCR results performed by non-expert field users and expert laboratory results, suggesting that qPCR as a methodology could be amenable to a CBM program.

Déclaration de conflit d'intérêts

The authors have read the journal’s policy, and the authors of this manuscript have the following competing interests: JW is owner of Aquality Environmental Consulting LTD and RLR is owner of Freshwater Solutions, LLC. This does not alter our adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials. There are no patents, products in development or marketed products associated with this research to declare.