This story was originally published by Maryland Matters.
First the Seine, and now the Patapsco.
A Baltimore nonprofit is employing the same technology used to monitor the Parisian river for triathletes during the 2024 summer Olympics in order to test Baltimore’s harbor — and, notably, get results in real-time.
The group, Baltimore’s Waterfront Partnership, is currently planning its next iteration of Harbor Splash, a public swimming event first held in the harbor in 2024, in Baltimore’s Fells Point neighborhood.
The technology, called ColiMinder, can conduct testing for E. coli bacteria in about 13 minutes, said Steven Mallette, president of Stelis Environmental Solutions, which sells the systems in much of the United States and Canada. E. coli is far from the only possible contaminant that can cause illness during swimming, but is one of the most likely culprits, he said.
Ordinarily, getting such results takes — at minimum — 24 hours, said Allison Blood, the senior manager of environmental projects and advocacy at the Waterfront Partnership. That made it impossible to know the exact water quality on the day of a planned swimming event, Blood said.
“On a swim day, at 6 a.m., we get the results for the day before, and then we take into consideration: Has it rained anywhere in the watershed last night?” Blood said. “We’ve had to cancel events when we felt like it would be safe to swim, but we didn’t have the information to provide to the public.”
The partnership scheduled a swim day in 2025, but had to cancel it due to inclement weather. After rescheduling the event, the nonprofit wound up cancelling a second time, so no event was held last year. Another is planned for this summer, though a date hasn’t been announced yet.
Generally, it is considered unsafe to swim in any natural waters in Maryland less than 48 hours after a heavy rain event, because stormwater transports garbage, sewage and other pollutants into bodies of water. In urban environments, the risk is particularly acute.
Baltimore had not held a public swim event in decades before 2024’s event, which maxed out at 150 participants, including Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott (D). It came after years of water quality monitoring from the partnership, which has determined that the harbor is generally swimmable as long as there has not been a rainstorm, and as long as no swimmers make contact with the former industrial harbor’s polluted bottom. They hope to one day unveil a permanent swimming area in the harbor.
The ColiMinder system, which will supplement the partnership’s existing laboratory testing, is currently perched on a pier in Fells Point — close to the site of Harbor Splash. A thin tube snakes out of a large metal box, which collects harbor water using a specialized pump. Inside the box sit several large containers of different solutions — and a computer-sized object labeled “Irina,” a unique nickname for Baltimore’s water tester.
“They just decided, rather than giving everything serial numbers, they give them all names. So each one has its own name,” Mallette said.
From there, a reagent solution is added to the sample, causing a quick reaction that reveals the presence of any E. coli bacteria, he said.
“There’s a phosphorescent reaction to the microbes in the water, and then there’s an optical sensor inside the machine that then observes that phosphorescence, and then it uses that to determine, with an algorithm, what the content is,” Mallette said.
After that, a different solution washes out the equipment, allowing it to take a fresh sample after an approximately 15-minute cleaning cycle.
The technology was developed by Austrian inventor Wolfgang Vogl, and can be operated almost entirely remotely, though the reagent and cleaning solutions must be refilled manually.
“It does it all automatically,” Mallette said. “All the results are then given digitally, online, so there’s no cause for concern about people mishandling any tests, or there being like a lapse in timing between getting the test from the water and bringing it to the lab.”
Mallette’s company is working to popularize the system — and maybe catch the eye of public health regulators including at the Environmental Protection Agency, which has not certified the technology, though it’s in use in cities including Sydney, Seattle and Montreal.
The system costs about $100,000, Mallette said, but the Waterfront Partnership is currently renting the equipment as part of a pilot program during the summer swimming season.
If all goes well, the partnership hopes to buy the system — and maybe more, said Adam Lindquist, the partnership’s vice president.
“We would definitely be interested in pursuing this technology at other locations around the harbor, and using it to support the creation of — ultimately — a permanent swim site somewhere,” Lindquist said.
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