Pathogen and Fecal Contamination in Alabama Black Belt Soil and Water Samples, 2023

A dataset of environmental samples from a rural Alabama community with limited sanitation infrastructure, collected in 2023. It includes 58 soil samples from sites near suspected wastewater discharges, 10 comparison soil samples, and 28 surface water samples. Measurements include culturable fecal indicator bacteria and qPCR detection of multiple enteric pathogens.

Use Cases

• Compare fecal contamination levels between impacted and unimpacted sites based on E. coli and Enterococcus counts.
• Analyze the prevalence of specific pathogens like Cryptosporidium and rotavirus in soil and surface water samples.
• Assess correlations between sanitation infrastructure failures and environmental pathogen hazards in a specific geographic context.

Strengths

• Includes specific quantitative measurements, such as mean culturable E. coli counts of 224 MPN/g in impacted soils.
• Reports detection of multiple pathogens via qPCR, including Acanthamoeba spp., Balantidium coli, and rotavirus.
• Provides confidence intervals (95% CI) for bacterial counts, indicating statistical analysis.

Limitations

• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Data is from a single community in 2023, which may limit generalizability.

Provenance

Source

Olivia A. Harmon

Collection Method

Cross-sectional surveys with environmental samples analyzed by multi-parallel qPCR and culture methods.

Time Range

2023

Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-22 17:22:41; freshness should be verified

Geography

A small town in Alabama's Black Belt region, USA.