Not Approved Under 40 CFR Part 136

In addition to developing and approving methods for use in compliance monitoring, EPA may develop methods to support studies of specific industries (e.g., the Effluent Guidelines program) or for use in broad national surveys. If such studies or surveys lead to regulatory limits of new contaminants, EPA approves the applicable methods for nationwide or industry-specific use through rulemaking which includes an opportunity for public comment.

Microbial Source Tracking Methods

In response to stakeholders’ needs for validated methods for microbial source tracking (MST) to characterize human sources of fecal pollution in recreational waters, EPA conducted a multi-laboratory validation study to assess method performance of Methods 1696 and 1697 across 14 laboratories in fresh and marine recreational water matrices.

Currently, there is a great deal of interest in Methods 1696 and 1697 in the United States and worldwide. EPA anticipates that stakeholders will use these methods to identify trends in human fecal contamination, to provide additional information to support water quality management decisions, and to help determine actionable outcomes that can potentially improve public health protection of fresh and marine recreational waters.

• 1696: Characterization of Human Fecal Pollution in Water by HF183/BacR287 TaqMan® Quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction (qPCR) Assay® (March 2019)
• 1697: Characterization of Human Fecal Pollution in Water by HumM2 TaqMan® Quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction (qPCR) Assay® (March 2019)

Other Microbiological Methods

• 1696: Characterization of Human Fecal Pollution in Water by HF183/BacR287 TaqMan® Quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction (qPCR) Assay (PDF)(56 pp, 980 K, March 2019, 821-R-19-002)
  qPCR procedure for the measurement of human-associated gene sequences from Bacteroides isolated from environmental water samples.
• 1697: Characterization of Human Fecal Pollution in Water by HumM2 TaqMan® Quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction (qPCR) Assay (PDF)(56 pp, 756 K, March 2019, 821-R-19-003)
  qPCR procedure for the measurement of human-associated gene sequences from Bacteroides-like microorganisms isolated from environmental water samples.
• 1642: Male-specific (F+) and Somatic Coliphage in Recreational Waters and Wastewater by Ultrafiltration (UF) and Single Agar Layer (SAL) Procedure (Draft) (PDF)(40 pp, 910 K, April 2018, 820-R-18-001)
  Procedure to concentrate, detect and enumerate male-specific (F+) and somatic coliphages in recreational waters and advanced treatment wastewater
• 1643: Male-specific (F+) and Somatic Coliphage in Secondary (No Disinfection) Wastewater by the Single Agar Layer (SAL) Procedure (Draft) (PDF)(32 pp, 807 K, April 2018, 820-R-18-003)
  Procedure to detect and enumerate male-specific (F+) and somatic coliphages in secondary treatment wastewater
• Errata to Methods 1609.1 and 1611.1 (PDF)(1 pg, 155 K, June 18, 2015)
• 1609: Enterococci in Water by TaqMan® Quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction (qPCR) with Internal Amplification Control (IAC) Assay (PDF)(72 pp, 1 MB, March 2013, 820-R-13-005)
• 1609.1: Enterococci in Water by TaqMan® Quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction (qPCR) with Internal Amplification Control (IAC) Assay (PDF)(71 pp, 670 K, April 2015, 820-R-15-099)
• 1611: Enterococci in Water by TaqMan® Quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction (qPCR) Assay (PDF)(56 pp, 415 K, October 2012, 821-R-12-008)
• 1611.1: Enterococci in Water by TaqMan® Quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction (qPCR) (PDF)(72 pp, 684 K, April 2015, 820-R-15-008)
• Method B: Bacteroidales in Water by TaqMan® Quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction (qPCR) Assay (PDF)(111 pp, 9 MB, June 2010, 822-R-10-003)
• Acceptability of the EPA qPCR Test at Your Beach (PDF)(4 pp, 36 K, December 2013, 820-R-13-012)
• Detection and Quantification Limits of EPA Enterococcus qPCR Methods (PDF)(7 pp, 62 K, December 2013, 820-R-13-013)
• 1693: Cryptosporidium and Giardia in Disinfected Wastewater by Concentration/IMS/IFA (PDF)(75 pp, 1 MB, September 2014, 821-R-14-013)
  Procedure to concentrate, detect and enumerate Cryptosporidium and Giardia in disinfected wastewater
• 1601: Male-specific (F+) and Somatic Coliphage in Water by Two-step Enrichment Procedure (PDF)(40 pp, 341 K, April 2001, 821-R-01-030)
  Procedure to determine the presence or absence of male-specific (F+) and somatic coliphages in ground water
• 1602: Male-specific (F+) and Somatic Coliphage in Water by Single Agar Layer (SAL) Procedure (PDF)(38 pp, 278 K, April 2001, 821-R-01-029)
  Procedure to detect and enumerate male-specific (F+) and somatic coliphages in ground water
• 1605: Aeromonas in Finished Water by Membrane Filtration using Ampicillin-Dextrin Agar with Vancomycin (ADA-V) (PDF)(36 pp, 147 K, October 2001, 821-R-01-034)
  Procedure for the detection and enumeration of Aeromonas species in finished water samples