Counting the Dots

We went back to the lab today to inspect the petri dishes containing samples we prepared yesterday. They'd been sitting in a heated water bath for 24 hours to allow any fecal coliform bacteria to form colonies large enough for counting when viewed under a low-power magnification microscope. Those are the blue dots in the photo.

Some of our water samples contained algae which also produce blue colonies, so we had to learn how to distinguish between algae and fecal coliform bacteria.

The good news is that our work passed quality control checks, and the bacteria levels were low.

Our Website has just been updated with lots of photos and more information about People for Lake Padden.