HUNTINGTON — State water quality experts hope to pinpoint how bad the bacteria problem has gotten in the 277-mile stretch of the Ohio River that borders West Virginia.

West Virginia has joined with Ohio, Kentucky and three other states that border the Ohio River for a study being conducted by the Environmental Protection Agency. The aim is to identify and reduce any dangerous bacteria levels in the waterway.

The study, known as a total maximum daily load study, wants to determine how much bacteria that sewage treatment plants, factories, farms and municipalities can discharge into the river without exceeding safety standards. According to the Ohio River Valley Water Sanitation Commission, about 500 miles of the 981-mile-river has unsafe levels of bacteria.

The study, which will include thousands of samples from the Ohio River, is scheduled to be completed next year. The water commission is providing the EPA with 15,000 water samples taken at 5-mile intervals of the entire river collected over the past five years.

Dave Montali is the total maximum daily load manager with the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection and the EPA study’s West Virginia coordinator. His normal duties are to determine which waterways are meeting the state’s water quality standards.

The two main bacteria found and studied in the Ohio River along West Virginia are fecal coliform and Escherichia coli., commonly referred to as E. coli. Jason Heath, the Ohio River Valley Water Sanitation Commission’s manager of water monitoring, assessment and standards, said ingestion of the polluted water can lead to gastroenteritis, which can result in vomiting, diarrhea and fever.

Read more in Monday's Herald-Dispatch.

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