MCBP Campaign 2022

(versione FR dessous)

The Montreux Clean Beach Project began in 2016, with friends from Hammerdirt and BIO-DESIGN for the REAL WORLD, and addressed issues of lake water pollution in the face of transient population increases.

from the paper, Figure 2

Here is the link to the old project page, which leads to a great deal of information, and ultimately led to our peer reviewed article and open data archive on this work...

The sampling work continued in the summer of 2022, using a new card format for the microbiological testing.

With a wonderful participatory research team, and kind collaboration of people organising the Montreux Jazz, who even sponsored us for acquisition of the microbial R-cards, we did 6 replicates (each obtained in their own tubes) from each of the usual three sites around the bay (depicted in the figure to the right) over an 8-week period.

We learned a great deal, also sampling from the off-shore platform, LéXPLORE, from which we learned on our first visit that seagulls also have bioindicator bacteria (and swans!)...

We even got some coverage in the local free paper, 20Minutes - this is the last of their items (which were generally quite good, in spite of some sensationalistic headlines) from this season...

With first hints of fall already in the air, after a crazy summer of record heat, we were pulling together the open data, and hoping to get the official beach sampling data to compare to our findings. Attempts at communication with the Montreux 'powers-that-be' and the other authorities and groups and people involved in water quality surveillance were never satisfactory, unfortunately, although we still hope to get the official results of their Clarens beach sampling, especially as our results showed this swimming beach to be just around Swiss limits for recreational waters!

Here are results from our analysis of median data, and including the platform and swimming beach data.

Actually, in the end, averages were more interesting from this past summer's sampling!

Here was the preliminary first overview of the average bioindicator and coliform levels per 100ml of water sample, week by week.

Here is a compilation of further graphs, also including the rain data.

As there was no rain between the 6th and the 18th of July, we wonder whether this could explain the unexpected reduction of bioindicator levels during the Jazz in 2022?

We invited everyone to learn more by coming to the big #OpenHackuarium Event:

MCBP2022 Wrap, 19h30, 12 October

Route de Crochy 20, 1024 Ecublens

There was so much more to bring together, with data from the platform, the Clarens beach, and another STEP, too...

Here is the presentation from that special #OH evening.

The python coding and putting together the open archive (Github) are already in progress and will be shared soon.

(To note, because 1ml was the max inocula for these cards, the limit of detection is 100/6 - or about 17 colonies/per 100mls water... These charts actually should never go down to 0! ;P)

Please let us know if you are interested in pursuing more of such work, out in the field or in the lab... =)

If you missed it, we had a special #OH on lake water quality on 5 April 2023 to learn more about our peer-reviewed studies around Montreux bay... Do you want to get involved? Let us know! /

Water Monitoring at GOSH 2022

With extra cards from the MCBP2022 campaign, the people at #GOSH2022 were introduced to Microbiological Water Monitoring!

It was amazing.

old tile, wire and a thermostat for the incubator build

Harold brought pieces from Singapore for the incubator

Harold Tay made a super simple incubator the first day of the gathering that could stably hold the 35 degree Celsius temperature needed *** for the R-Cards out of some old bathroom tiles, nylon-coated steel wire, and a simple thermostat, the W1209.

A masonry bit was used to score the glazed portion of the tile, breaking it into 3. This allowed a whole stack of R-cards to be put inside for the 48h incubation.

Epoxy glue was used to glue these the tile pieces together.

ready to try!

a t-shirt was used as insulation...

Wire was wrapped in both directions, to avoid a magnetic field effect...

On the last day of #GOSH, Harold crimped bits onto the wires, to make it more stable for its travel back to Switzerland...

**

Imagine the volume that would be needed with real petri dishes and that many samples! At least 10-20x, I guess...

Viva open science hardware and these cool cards!

(See pictures and workshop results with Canal water, etc., to right.)

Inoculation of the R-Cards with water samples during the workshop for #GOSH2022

***To note: for higher temps, want different wire without the coating! (and also better insulation, most likely)

Here are more details from Harold on this mini incubator build. Please let us know if you have questions or make one to use!

It was a nice workshop, after the demo session for students and the public... Everyone got to inoculate cards.

#GOSH2022 documentation team's artistic impression of the workshop

Workshop finale in Panama. The DIT-incubator kept its temperature and fit all those cards (20) !

Overview of the results in Panama.

Results: (blue spots are the 'bioindicator' for raw sewage pollution, E.coli, and pink is general coliforms...)

Tap water is clean, and the toilet water only had about 300 bioindicator bacteria (and no coliforms) per 100ml.

The triplicate cards gave good average results:

The Canal had about 700 bioindicator bacteria per 100ml on average, and is not meant for swimming! =P

The creek (snail water) had 233 bioindicators and a lot of coliforms per 100 ml, while a rain drain had around 100 bioindicators per 100ml. The big surprise was a puddle in the grass with about 5000 bioindicators per 100ml - maybe due to animals that scavenge people's trash, like the coatis?? (as we learned this year, even seagulls and swans carry the E.coli bioindicator bugs!)

(Here's extra info Harold shared after GOSH2022 - which should have been added here, long ago:

The incubator is sized to take Roth test cards, so I used bathroom tiles 4-1/2" square to contain the cards. These tiles serve to provide thermal mass, which is needed to maintain a relatively constant internal temperature for the test cards.

Tiles may be cut using a tile cutter, or failing which, a glass cutter or carbide scribe. I used a carbide drill bit to make a clean scratch on the glazed side of the tile. The tile can then be snapped along the scratch line.

I used epoxy to assemble the tile enclosure. Silicone sealant/caulk should be ok too, for lower temperature applications. The W1209 thermistor should be glued to the inside of the enclosure.

I used nylon coated steel wire as the heating element. For this low temperature application, the type of wire used is not important, but one should aim for a power dissipation of a few watts. I chose 5 watts (at 12v) which is probably on the high end.

The issue is that the heater wire will get to a higher maximum temperature than the set point temperature, so it is prudent to err on the side of lower power.

Given the power dissipation, choose a wire thickness (it will be less than 1mm) such that a wire length of at least a couple of meters results. You’ll need to measure the wire resistance with a multimeter. Too short wire means non uniform heating. In my case, approximately 3 meters of wire were required.

The wire is folded in half, then wound around the tile enclosure, and secured using high temperature polyimide tape, the orange coloured transparent tape used by 3d printers. Folding the wire in half ensures that the wire need not overlap itself and short itself, as well as cancelling the magnetic field.

aneindia.com

w1209_Manual.pdf

180.98 KB

W1209 thermostat board is used to control the heating. This board is common and cheap (but is not open source). It takes 12v input, but I think it can be modified to take usb (5v) power instead. Anyway, it needs to be configured as a heater (default is as a fan cooler), meaning the relay is activated when temperature is too LOW, and deactivated when temperature is too HIGH. The fan cooling default takes the opposite actions. The board refers to this configuration parameter as P0, which should have the value H instead of C. The hysteresis (config parameter P1) should be set to a smallish value, I used 0.4 degrees C. The temperature I set to 34 degrees C, using the SET button. Configured thus, the heater should click on at 33.6 degrees and click off at 34.4 degrees.

Other board parameters may be left unaltered.

The heater wires should be connected to screw terminals 1 and 4, and terminals 2 and 3 should be jumpered together. 12 volts is supplied to terminals 3 and 4.

In use, the incubator enclosure including opening should be wrapped in insulation, like a blanket. The W1209 board proper should not be wrapped, and care should be taken that the electrical traces on the underside of the board do not contact anything conductive. The W1209 LEDs should be visible so you can check on it.

The incubator should be preheated (like a kitchen oven) before the Roth cards are inserted, to let the temperature stabilise. During preheating, the heater should click on and off every minute or so, and you should verify that the displayed temperature is always around 34 degrees.

Update: I have modified another W1209 board by replacing the existing 12V relay with a 5V unit, and everything works when powered from 5V instead of 12C. This means it can be powered from a USB source, or a power bank, which for most people will be more convenient than a 12V source.

The existing 12V relay carries JQC-T78-DC12V-A part number, and I replaced it with SRA-05VDC-CL. SRA05VDC-AL can be used instead (and is preferable). Removing the old relay is eased b having a hot air rework gun.

So excited to see him again for GOSH2026!)

/

Le projet Montreux Clean Beach a débuté en 2016, avec des amis de Hammerdirt et BIO-DESIGN for the REAL WORLD, et a abordé les questions de la pollution des eaux du lac face à l'augmentation de la population transitoire.

Voici le lien vers l'ancienne page du projet, qui mène à de nombreuses informations, et finalement à notre article revu par les pairs et aux archives de données ouvertes sur ce travail....

Le travail d'échantillonnage a re-commencé pendant l'été 2022, en utilisant un nouveau format de cartes pour les tests microbiologiques.

Avec une merveilleuse équipe de recherche participative, et l'aimable collaboration des personnes qui organisent le Montreux Jazz, nous avons fait 6 réplicats (chacun obtenu dans ses propres tubes) de chacun des trois sites habituels autour de la baie sur une période de 8 semaines.

Nous avons beaucoup appris, en prélevant également des échantillons sur la plateforme en mer LéXPLORE. dont nous avons appris lors de notre première visite que les mouettes ont aussi des bactéries bioindicatrices (et les cygnes !)...

Avec les premiers signes de l'automne déjà dans l'air, après un été fou de chaleur record, nous rassemblions les données ouvertes et espérions obtenir les données officielles d'échantillonnage des plages pour les comparer à nos résultats. Les tentatives de communication avec les autorités de Montreux et les autres autorités, groupes et personnes impliqués dans la surveillance de la qualité de l'eau n'ont malheureusement pas été satisfaisantes, bien que nous espérions toujours obtenir les résultats officiels de l'échantillonnage de la plage de Clarens.

Voici les résultats de notre analyse des données médianes, et incluant les données de la plateforme et des plages de baignade.

En fait, en fin de compte, les moyennes étaient plus intéressantes à partir de l'échantillonnage de l'été dernier !

Voici le premier aperçu préliminaire des niveaux moyens par 100ml de bioindicateurs et de coliformes trouvés, semaine par semaine.

Voici une compilation d'autres graphiques, incluant également les données de pluie.

Comme il n'y a pas eu de pluie entre le 6 et le 18 juillet, nous nous demandons si cela pourrait expliquer la réduction inattendue des niveaux des bioindicateurs pendant le Jazz en 2022 ?

Nous avons invité tout le monde à en savoir plus en venant au grand événement #OpenHackuarium :

Sommaire de MCBP2022, 19h30, 12 octobre

Route de Crochy 20, 1024 Ecublens

Il y a plus à rassembler, avec les données de la plateforme, la plage de Clarens et encore une STEP, aussi...

Voici la présentation de cette soirée portes ouvertes (#OpenHackuarium).

Le codage python et le montage de l'archive ouverte sont en cours et seront bientôt partagés.

(A noter, comme 1ml était l'inocula maximum pour ces cartes, la limite de détection est de 100/6 - ou environ 17/par 100mls d'eau... En fait, ces graphiques ne devraient jamais descendre à 0 ! ;P)

N'hésitez pas à nous faire savoir si vous êtes intéressés à poursuivre ce genre de travail, sur le terrain ou en laboratoire... =)

Surveillance de l'eau à GOSH 2022

Grâce aux cartes supplémentaires de la campagne MCBP2022, les personnes de #GOSH2022 ont été initiées à la surveillance microbiologique de l'eau !

C'était incroyable.

Le premier jour du rassemblement, Harold Tay a fabriqué un incubateur très simple, capable de maintenir de manière stable la température de 35 degrés Celsius nécessaire pour les cartes R, à partir de vieux carreaux de salle de bain, de fil d'acier recouvert de nylon et d'un simple thermostat, le W1209.

Une mèche de maçonnerie a été utilisée pour entailler la partie vitrée du carreau, le cassant en 3, ce qui a permis de placer une pile entière de cartes R à l'intérieur pour l'incubation de 48 heures.

De la colle époxy a été utilisée pour coller les morceaux de tuiles ensemble.

Le fil a été enroulé dans les deux sens, pour éviter un effet de champ magnétique...

Le dernier jour de #GOSH, Harold a serti des morceaux sur les fils, afin de les rendre plus stables pour le voyage de retour en Suisse...

Imaginez le volume qui serait nécessaire avec de vraies boîtes de Pétri et autant d'échantillons ! Au moins 10-20x, je suppose... viva le matériel scientifique ouvert et ces cartes cool !

(Voir les photos et les résultats avec l'eau du canal, etc., à droite).

À noter : pour des températures plus élevées, il faut un autre fil sans recouvrement de nylon ! (et aussi une isolation meilleure...)

Résultats : (les taches bleues sont des 'bioindicateurs' de la pollution par les eaux usées brutes, E.coli, et les taches roses sont les coliformes généraux...)

L'eau du robinet est propre, avec aucun coliform ou bioindicateur; et l'eau des toilettes ne contenait qu'environ 300 bactéries bioindicatrices (et aucun coliforme) par 100ml.

Les cartes triples ont donné de bons résultats moyens :

Le Canal avait environ 700 bactéries bioindicatrices par 100ml en moyenne, et ce Canal n'est pas fait pour la baignade ! =P

Le ruisseau (eau d'escargot) avait 233 bioindicateurs et beaucoup de coliformes par 100ml, tandis qu'un drain de pluie avait environ 100 bioindicateurs et plus de coliformes par 100ml. La grande surprise a été une flaque d'eau dans l'herbe avec environ 5000 bioindicateurs par 100 ml - peut-être à cause des animaux qui fouillent les déchets des gens, comme les coatis ? (comme nous l'avons appris cette année, même les mouettes et les cygnes sont porteurs des bactéries bioindicatrices -E.coli).

** design details of this low cost and simple incubator are available including modifications so it can be run from a 5V source / conception détaillée disponible (Harold Tay)

CC BY 4.0

Si vous l'avez manqué, nous avons eu un #OH spécial sur la qualité de l'eau du lac pour en savoir plus sur nos études autour le baie de Montreux et publiés avec revue de pairs ... Vous souhaitez vous impliquer ? Faites-le nous savoir !