text: In waters of the U.S., Canada and other countries, water quality is monitored to protect the health of the general public. Bacteria contamination is one monitored pollutant. In the U.S., fecal coliform testing is one of the nine tests of water quality that form the overall water-quality rating in a process used by U.S. EPA. The fecal coliform assay should only be used to assess the presence of fecal matter in situations where fecal coliforms of non-fecal origin are not commonly encountered. EPA has approved a number of different methods to analyze samples for bacteria.