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Long-Term Bacterial Dynamics in a Full-Scale Drinking Water Distribution System.
E I Prest1, D G Weissbrodt1,2, F Hammes3
1Department of Biotechnology, Faculty of Applied Sciences, Delft University of Technology, Van der Maasweg 9, 2629 HZ Delft, The Netherlands.
Plos One
|October 30, 2016
Summary
Seasonal changes significantly impact microbial drinking water quality in distribution systems. Understanding these temporal dynamics is crucial for accurate water quality assessments, especially in systems without disinfectant residual.
Area of Science:
- Environmental Microbiology
- Water Quality Monitoring
- Public Health
Background:
- Seasonal variations in microbial drinking water quality are often overlooked in short-term sampling.
- Distribution networks without disinfectant residual are susceptible to microbial community shifts.
- Temporal dynamics significantly influence bacterial populations in drinking water.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate temporal dynamics in bacterial community characteristics over two years.
- To analyze microbial and environmental parameters in a drinking water distribution system.
- To understand the influence of water treatment plant effluent on network water quality.
Main Methods:
- Biweekly sampling over two years at the water treatment plant (WTP) effluent and distribution network (NET).
- Analysis of heterotrophic plate counts (HPC), Aeromonas, adenosine-tri-phosphate (ATP), and flow cytometry (FCM) cell counts (TCC, ICC).
- Measurement of water temperature, pH, conductivity, total organic carbon (TOC), and assimilable organic carbon (AOC).
- Multivariate analysis to correlate microbial and environmental parameters.
Main Results:
- Significant seasonal variations in WTP effluent total cell counts (TCC) and ATP concentrations correlated with water temperature.
- Flow cytometry (FCM) revealed seasonal dynamics not detected by traditional HPC and Aeromonas counts.
- Bacterial growth in the network was inversely correlated with effluent AOC and positively correlated with water temperature.
Conclusions:
- High-frequency, long-term monitoring is essential to capture undocumented seasonal dynamics in drinking water distribution systems.
- Flow cytometry (FCM) provides high-resolution data for predicting bacterial concentrations based on environmental factors.
- Assessing temporal fluctuations alongside spatial dynamics is critical for effective drinking water quality management.
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