E. coli found in Trinity River at Panther Island Pavilion

A high amount of E. coli in the Trinity River left locals rockin’ the land instead of the water at Thursday night’s Rockin’ the River concert.

The crowd at the Panther Island Pavilion had to watch headliner Sam Riggs, followed by musician Aaron Einhouse, from the banks of the river after weekly testing found 1,700 E. coli organisms per 100 milliliters of river water near the pavilion.

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality standard is 399 E. coli organisms per 100 milliliters, said Woody Frossard, environmental director for the Tarrant Regional Water District.

“Anything above that they don’t recommend contact recreation,” Frossard said.

He said the TRWD performs water sampling every Tuesday from May through October. When the test results came back Thursday, he said, he recommended water tubing be canceled for the event that night.

“I can’t tell you what is causing the problem because I don’t know yet,” Frossard said. “I got the samples today and will do more testing tomorrow. There is a possibility someone dumped something in the river.”

He said the only problem area found was near Panther Island Pavilion. Other parts of the river tested less than 40 E. coli organisms per 100 milliliters.

Water district employees will be back out on the river early Friday, testing the waters upstream to try to identify the source.

Sunday Funday, a day of family-friendly tubing, kayaking, canoeing and boating at Panther Island, was still scheduled. It will be the last Sunday Funday event of the year.

This story was originally published August 6, 2015 at 10:14 PM with the headline "E. coli found in Trinity River at Panther Island Pavilion."