Environmental Department – Water

“Treat the Earth well.

It was not given to you by your parents,

it was loaned to you by your children.

We do not inherit the Earth from our Ancestors,

we borrow it from our Children.”   …   Ancient Proverb

In an attempt to better inform the Seneca-Cayuga Tribal Members, the  Environmental Department will be future posting our bacteria findings, here, for the following water bodies;

1) Buffalo Creek

2) Buffalo Confluence

3) Elk River

These water bodies were chosen as they directly affect the Seneca-Cayuga Ceremonial Grounds and its participant members.   The Seneca-Cayuga Environmental Department currently uses the MPN method to report findings to both the Seneca-Cayuga Tribe and the United States Environmental Protection Agency.  Our findings are compared to the current Oklahoma standard, which is considered as a base-line measurement, which is published by the Oklahoma Water Resources Board.

OWRB standards for fecal coliforms for warm water aquatic communities.

^a shall not exceed this monthly geometric mean value per 100 ml;
based upon a minimum of not less than five (5) samples collected over a period
of not more than thirty (30) days

colony-forming unit (CFU) is a measure of viable bacterial or fungal numbers.

*Disclaimer … Our findings are based on monthly samples taken from these monitoring site locations, under U.S.E.P.A. regulations of the “Clean Water Act”, using USGS approved collection methods, and serve merely as a “snapshot” of water conditions at the time of collection.

January cfu Values - monitored/sampled 1/17/2012

                         Buffalo Creek:   E-Coli = 42 , Total Coliforms = 2

                         Buffalo Confluence: E-Coli = 6, Total Coliforms = 2

                         Elk River: E-Coli = < 1,  Total Coliforms = 3

Seneca-Cayuga Tribe of Oklahoma