Improvement of Urban Lake Water Quality by Removal of Escherichia coli through the Action of the Bivalve Anodonta califomiensis

High levels of fecal indicator bacteria, such as Escherichia coli, can be indicative of poor water quality. The use of shellfish to reduce eutrophication has been proposed, but application of bivalves to reduce bacterial levels has not been extensively reported. Removal of E. coli by the native freshwater mussel Anodonta californiensis was studied using laboratory batch systems and field-based flow-through systems. Batch systems were utilized to determine the fate and inactivation of E. coli after uptake by the mussel. Batch experiments demonstrated that uptake patterns followed first order kinetics and E. coli was inactivated with less than 5% of the initial colonies recoverable in fecal matter or tissue. Flow-through systems located at an urban impaired lake in San Francisco, CA were utilized to determine uptake kinetics under environmentally relevant conditions. The bivalves maintained a 1-log removal of E. coli for the duration of exposure. The calculated uptake rates can be used in conjunction with hydrologic models to determine the number of bivalves needed to maintain removal of E. coli in different freshwater systems. The outcomes of this study support the use of native freshwater bivalves to achieve the co-benefits of rehabilitating a freshwater ecosystem and improving water quality via reduction of E. coli in contaminated freshwater systems.