We’ve all heard of dogs sniffing for bombs or drugs. But what about sniffing for bacteria? APR headed to south Alabama where an environmental group is training man’s best friend to find untreated wastewater in local rivers and streams.
On the edge of Mobile Bay with gulls squawking overhead, Professor X shakes off his lead. He makes a beeline for a row of aluminum canisters.
X – short for Xavier, is a Belgium Malinois. That’s a highly trainable dog breed. Xavier is so smart he earned the nick name professor X. He has a sleek black coat, pointy ears, and most importantly- a keen nose – he uses to sniff out pollution. Paul Orcutt is his handler. He commands X to search the canisters.
The dog is looking for one holding water from nearby Fly Creek. When he picks the right container a series of beeps signals a treat.
“Today’s a big day for us,” said Orcutt. “Now we go operational and we run our samples this morning. The samples will go immediately to the lab and they’ll confirm our findings one way or another.”Orcutt is training X to find untreated human wastewater in coastal Alabama’s rivers and streams. They’re part of a study run by the Mobile Bay National Estuary Program. That group monitors water quality in the area. Fly Creek has long been a hot spot says Codi Aloi project lead for the wastewater detection canine program.
“There’s problems and it’s not a secret. Where it comes from is always kind of been a point of contention so we’re trying to discern definitively whether it’s human source or non-human source,” he said.
Whether it comes from people or animals, high levels of bacterial contamination mean the water’s not safe for swimming, fishing, or raising oysters. Blair Morrison is the scientist overseeing the study. She says we’ll always have some bacterial pollution from wild animals but human pollution is fixable.
“There are a lot of potential sources. You could have an infrastructure issue like with a sewer, you could have a failing septic system,” said Morrison.
With that in mind, X the dog started training last fall to learn the odors linked with untreated human wastewater. In the lab, his nose is 99 percent accurate.
“It’s the detergents, it’s the fats, oils and greases, yeah – it’s not a bouquet that we particularly want to smell,” Morrison said.
Traditional methods of tracking wastewater contamination are expensive and can take months. Morrison says one goal of the study is to show using man’s best friend has the potential to save money and respond quickly.
“X is really allowing us to go and test those areas and be an early screening tool to try and figure out what’s going on there and if there’s a pinpoint source we can address,” she said.
A better way to find pollution is welcome news for Tom Yeager and Jimbo Meador. The two men watch as X sniffs one cannister after another. Yeager lives on the creek and worries about water quality.
“Well, quite a bit because it has gotten worse over the years,” said Yaeger.
Eighty-three year old Meador has spent a lifetime on Mobile Bay. He’s seen that water change and says untreated wastewater is part of the problem.
“Well, the water in Fly Creek goes into Mobile Bay. It’s just another tributary to do more damage to the Bay,” he said.
X may be the only dog around Mobile Bay searching for sewage but he isn’t the first in his field. Karen Reynolds is the former owner of Environmental Canine Services in Maine. She retired and closed her company. But says the method works and using a cute dog comes with added benefits.
“It became great public awareness for sewage pollution. I mean people just don’t think about it,” she said.
When X is finished for the day, the Alabama Department of Environmental Management lab will double check his findings. ADEM and nine other organizations are partners in the study. The group hopes to collect all its data by October.
