"The majority of the reported water impairments are related to microbial agents. Since it is not feasible to directly monitor all pathogens, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has established microbial water quality criteria based on fecal indicator bacteria (FIB). Reliance on the current approach, based on FIB, for assessing the risk associated with water contamination is inadequate for protecting public health. Recently, the use of microbial indicators, as a tool for risk assessment and policy planning and implementations, has been significantly enhanced by using molecular-based methods for Microbial Source Tracking (MST). Combinations of one or more molecular based-methods are increasing in recent studies, but to date there is no single method that could be applied to all types of faecally contaminated water systems. The selection of a particular method could be affected by several factors such as the complexity of the environment under study, the number of sources suspected to be implicated in contamination events, funds available to perform studies, and the technical expertise available to produce and analyze the data. In this study multiple MST methods have been investigated in combination with land use data and hydrological conditions at a watershed scale in Michigan. Two beaches in Saginaw Bay watershed and one creek in Red Cedar River watershed have been assessed for water quality and potential sources of contamination have been identified."--Page ii.
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