Brandon Steets, PE, and Jared Ervin, PhD, coauthored “Bacterial community analysis of recreational beach waters reveals human fecal contamination and pathogenicity across varying field conditions” in Volume 281 of Water Research. The article, which is available online, will be published in Volume 281 on August 1, 2025.

Brandon and Jared’s coauthors were Dong Li, Laurie C. Van Werfhorst, Jen Smith, and Patricia A. Holden from the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), and Rachel T. Noble and Denene Blackwood from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The City of Malibu funded the study.

This article is part of a larger, multiyear collaboration with a research group at UCSB.

Brandon is a Senior Principal Engineer based in California with more than 24 years of experience focused on National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) and total maximum daily load (TMDL) regulations, pollutant source investigation, watershed water-quality modeling, and green-infrastructure design.

Jared is a Senior Professional based in California with more than 13 years of experience in pollutant-source tracking and use of advanced forensic tools to support TMDL compliance and improve water quality in stormwater and surface water nationwide.

Water Research publishes refereed research on all aspects of the science and technology of the anthropogenic water cycle, water quality, and water-quality management worldwide.

More Information

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For more information on human fecal contamination of beaches, pollutant-source investigation, water quality, and stormwater management, contact Brandon at BSteets@Geosyntec.com or Jared at JErvin@Geosyntec.com.
Learn more about Brandon: Brandon Steets (Geosyntec.com)
Learn more about Jared: Jared Ervin (Geosyntec.com)

Additional Recent Microbial Articles Coauthored by Geosyntec with Researchers

“MS4 Dry Weather Flows and Potential Flow Sources as Assessed by Conventional and Advanced Bacterial Analyses”
“Modeled and Measured SARS-CoV-2 Virus in Septic Tank Systems for Wastewater Surveillance”
“Bacterial Community Analysis to Quantify Dry Weather Flow Source Contributions in Urban Storm Drains”
“Assessing Multiple Fecal Sources to Surf Zone Waters of Two Recreational Beaches by Bacterial Community Analysis”