“Treat the Earth well. It was not given to you by your parents, it was loaned to you by your children.  We do not inherit the Earth from our Ancestors, we borrow it from our Children.”

In an attempt to better inform the Seneca-Cayuga Tribal Members, the  Environmental Department will be future posting our bacteria findings, here, for Buffalo Creek, Buffalo Confluence, and Elk River.

These water bodies were chosen as they directly affect the Seneca-Cayuga Ceremonial Grounds and its participant members.   The Seneca-Cayuga Environmental Department currently uses the MPN method to report findings to both the Seneca-Cayuga Tribe and the United States Environmental Protection Agency.  Our findings are compared to the current Oklahoma standard, which is considered as a base-line measurement, which is published by the Oklahoma Water Resources Board.

O.W.R.B. standards for “fecal coliforms” for a warm water aquatic community;

                  Parameter                       Standard^a

                  Total Coliforms               200 (cfu)

                  E.-Coli.                            126 (cfu)

a : shall not exceed this monthly geometric mean value per 100 ml; based upon a minimum of not less than five (5) samples collected over a period of not more than thirty (30) days.

*Note – the “geometric mean” is simply a type of average that indicates the central tendency or typical value of a set of numbers. This O.W.R.B. value is calculated from the results of 5 seperate test, 100 milliters each, taken within a thirty day period.

The “cfu“ simply means colony forming unit and is a unit of measure of viable bacteria or fungal numbers.

Coliform Bacteria are the most commonly used bacterial indicator of sanitary quality of foods and/or water. They can be found in aquatic environments, in soil and on vegetation; they are universally present in large numbers in the  faeces of warm-blooded animals.  While coliforms are not normally causes of serious inllness, they are indicators that other pathogenic organisms of faecal origin are persent. Faecal pathogens include bacteria, viruses, or protozoa, and  many multicellular parasites.

 Escherichia Coli, commonly abbreviated E. Coli, are almost exclusively of fecal origin and their presence is an effective confirmation of fecal contamination.  Some strains of E. Coli can cause serious inllness in humans.

*Disclaimer … Our findings are based on monthly samples taken from these monitoring site locations, under U.S.E.P.A. regulations of the “Clean Water Act”, using USGS approved collection methods, and serve merely as a “snapshot” of water conditions at the time of collection.