Cryptosporidium and the New York City Watershed

Introduction

Outbreaks of water-borne pathogens seem to be on the rise, potentially affecting thousands (or even millions!) of people.As the baby-boomers age, and with immuno-compromising diseases like AIDS on the rise, we all need to be increasingly concerned about the quality of our drinking water. Yet clean water does not come without a cost -- to businesses, government and society as a whole.

This case uses microscopy to investigate the potential for contamination by a water-borne pathogen called Cryptosopridium in the NYC watershed. After analyzing your results, it's up to you to help decide whether NYC is doing enough to protect the quality of its drinking water.

NOTE: To help you understand this case study, we have developed a worksheet of questions that you will need to answer as you go through it. If you have not yet done so, download and print a copy of the worksheet from the References panel at the right.

References

> Worksheet