Search

Drinkwaterbedrijf Dunea (Den Haag en omstreken) produceert drinkwater uit oppervlaktewater via duininfiltratie. De kwaliteit van het in te nemen oppervlaktewater komt de komende decennia meer onder druk te staan door een toename van organische microverontreinigingen (OMV), zoals geneesmiddelen, röntgencontrastmiddelen, pesticiden en industriële stoffen, in combinatie met periodiek lage rivierafvoeren. OMV kunnen negatieve effecten op de gezondheid hebben, maar zijn moeilijk volledig te verwijderen. Dit is een serieuze zorg voor de drinkwaterproductie. Biedt een combinatie van geavanceerde oxidatie en duininfiltratie uitkomst?

AOP decreases the number and concentration of OMP and chances of negative impact on ecology and groundwater quality.AOP decreased OMP concentrations in drinking water with no measurable negative effect on water quality parameters.MARR produces water with a highly stable chemical and microbiological composition and levels out seasonal peak fluctuations.There is redundancy in OMP removal by MARR and AOP, but AOP is able to remove certain OMP that MARR is not, and vice versa.

A direct method for measuring adenosine-triphosphate (ATP) in seawater was developed recently, in which commercial reagents are added directly to seawater. However, calibration is required if seawater quality changes (such as changes in salinity, pH, Mg2+, Fe3+) as the seawater matrix interferes with ATP measurement. In this research, a 0.1 μm filtration process is introduced to eliminate such interferences. In addition, a filter rinsing step with sterilized artificial seawater is proposed to eliminate interference of free ATP. The ATP-filtration method is fast (<5 min), reproducible (VC = 7%), six times more sensitive than the direct ATP-method and correlates (R2 = 0.72, n = 100) with intact cell concentration. Microbial ATP concentration measured using the ATP-filtration method and the ATP-direct method were comparable. Microbial ATP measured along the treatment train of a full-scale seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) plant decreased from 530 in the raw seawater to 10 ng-ATP/L after pre-treatment and to 0.5 ng-ATP/L in the SWRO permeate. The method was also applied to monitor bacterial growth potential (BGP) across the pre-treatment train of a (pilot) seawater desalination plant, where the removal of BGP through the media filtration and ultrafiltration was 44% and 7%, respectively.

A direct method for measuring adenosine-triphosphate (ATP) in seawater was developed recently, in which commercial reagents are added directly to seawater. However, calibration is required if seawater quality changes (such as changes in salinity, pH, Mg2+, Fe3+) as the seawater matrix interferes with ATP measurement. In this research, a 0.1 μm filtration process is introduced to eliminate such interferences. In addition, a filter rinsing step with sterilized artificial seawater is proposed to eliminate interference of free ATP. The ATP-filtration method is fast (<5 min), reproducible (VC = 7%), six times more sensitive than the direct ATP-method and correlates (R2 = 0.72, n = 100) with intact cell concentration. Microbial ATP concentration measured using the ATP-filtration method and the ATP-direct method were comparable. Microbial ATP measured along the treatment train of a full-scale seawater reverse osmosis (SWRO) plant decreased from 530 in the raw seawater to 10 ng-ATP/L after pre-treatment and to 0.5 ng-ATP/L in the SWRO permeate. The method was also applied to monitor bacterial growth potential (BGP) across the pre-treatment train of a (pilot) seawater desalination plant, where the removal of BGP through the media filtration and ultrafiltration was 44% and 7%, respectively., Sanitary Engineering, BT/Environmental Biotechnology

Drinking water utilities currently rely on a range of microbiological detection techniques to evaluate the quality of their drinking water (DW). However, microbiota profiling using culture-free 16S rRNA gene next-generation sequencing (NGS) provides an opportunity for improved monitoring of the microbial ecology and quality of DW. Here, we evaluated the utility of a previously validated microbiota profiling platform (MYcrobiota) to investigate the microbial dynamics of a full-scale, non-chlorinated DW distribution system (DWDS). In contrast to conventional methods, we observed spatial and temporal bacterial genus changes (expressed as operational taxonomic units - OTUs) within the DWDS. Further, a small subset of bacterial OTUs dominated with abundances that shifted across the length of the DWDS, and were particularly affected by a post-disinfection step. We also found seasonal variation in OTUs within the DWDS and that many OTUs could not be identified, even though MYcrobiota is specifically designed to reduce potential PCR sequencing artefacts. This suggests that our current knowledge about the microbial ecology of DW communities is limited. Our findings demonstrate that the user-friendly MYcrobiota platform facilitates culture-free, standardized microbial dynamics monitoring and has the capacity to facilitate the introduction of microbiota profiling into the management of drinking water quality.

Bathers release bacteria in swimming pool water, but little is known about the fate of these bacteria and potential risks they might cause. Therefore, shower water was characterized and subjected to chlorination to identify the more chlorine-resistant bacteria that might survive in a chlorinated swimming pool and therefore could form a potential health risk. The total community before and after chlorination (1 mg Cl2 L1 for 30 s) was characterized. More than 99% of the bacteria in the shower water were Gram-negative. The dominant bacterial families with a relative abundance of 10% of the total (non-chlorinated and chlorinated) communities were Flavobacteriaceae (24–21%), Xanthomonadaceae (23–24%), Moraxellaceae (12–11%) and Pseudomonadaceae (10–22%). The relative abundance of Pseudomonadaceae increased after chlorination and increased even more with longer contact times at 1 mg Cl2 L1. Therefore, Pseudomonadaceae were suggested to be relatively more chlorine resistant than the other identified bacteria. To determine which bacteria could survive chlorination causing a potential health risk, the relative abundance of the intact cell community was characterized before and after chlorination. The dominant bacterial families in the intact community (non-chlorinated and chlorinated) were Xanthomonadaceae (21–17%) and Moraxellaceae (48–57%). Moraxellaceae were therefore more chlorine resistant than the other identified intact bacteria present., Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository ‘You share, we take care!’ – Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public., Sanitary Engineering, BT/Environmental Biotechnology

Ensuring the biological stability of drinking water is essential for modern drinking water supply. To understand and manage the biological stability, it is critical that the bacterial growth in drinking water can be measured. Nowadays, advance treatment technologies, such as reverse osmosis (RO), are increasingly applied in drinking water purification where the produced water is characterized by low levels of nutrients and cell counts. The challenge is, therefore, how to measure the low bacterial growth potential (BGP) of such ultra-pure water using the available methods which were originally developed for conventionally treated drinking water. In this study, we proposed a protocol to assess BGP of ultra-pure drinking water produced by RO and post-treatment (including remineralization). Natural bacterial consortium from conventional drinking water was added to all water samples during this study to ensure the presence of a wide range of bacterial strains. The method development included developing an ultra-pure blank with high reproducibility to lower the detection limit of the BGP method (50 ± 20 × 103 intact cells/mL) compared with conventional blanks such as bottled spring water, deep groundwater treated by aeration and slow sand filtrate of surface water supply. The ultra-low blank consists of RO permeate after adjusting its pH and essential mineral content under controlled laboratory conditions to ensure carbon limitation. Regarding the test protocol, inoculum concentrations of >10 × 103 intact cells/mL may have a significant contribution to the measured low levels of BGP. Pasteurization of water samples before measuring BGP is necessary to ensure reliable bacterial growth curves. The optimized method was used to assess BGP of ultra-pure drinking water produced by RO membranes and post-treatment (including remineralization), where the BGP has decreased more than 6-fold to a level of 90 ± 20 × 103 intact cells/mL compared w, Sanitary Engineering

The general consensus is that the abundance of tap water bacteria is greatly influenced by water purification and distribution. Those bacteria that are released from biofilm in the distribution system are especially considered as the major potential risk for drinking water bio-safety. For the first time, this full-scale study has captured and identified the proportional contribution of the source water, treated water, and distribution system in shaping the tap water bacterial community based on their microbial community fingerprints using the Bayesian “SourceTracker” method. The bacterial community profiles and diversity analyses illustrated that the water purification process shaped the community of planktonic and suspended particle-associated bacteria in treated water. The bacterial communities associated with suspended particles, loose deposits, and biofilm were similar to each other, while the community of tap water planktonic bacteria varied across different locations in distribution system. The microbial source tracking results showed that there was not a detectable contribution of source water to bacterial community in the tap water and distribution system. The planktonic bacteria in the treated water was the major contributor to planktonic bacteria in the tap water (17.7–54.1%). The particle-associated bacterial community in the treated water seeded the bacterial community associated with loose deposits (24.9–32.7%) and biofilm (37.8–43.8%) in the distribution system. In return, the loose deposits and biofilm showed a significant influence on tap water planktonic and particle-associated bacteria, which were location dependent and influenced by hydraulic changes. This was revealed by the increased contribution of loose deposits to tap water planktonic bacteria (from 2.5% to 38.0%) and an increased contribution of biofilm to tap water particle-associated bacteria (from 5.9% to 19.7%) caused by possible hydraulic disturbance from proximal to distal regions., Sanitary Engineering

Ensuring the biological stability of drinking water is essential for modern drinking water supply. To understand and manage the biological stability, it is critical that the bacterial growth in drinking water can be measured. Nowadays, advance treatment technologies, such as reverse osmosis (RO), are increasingly applied in drinking water purification where the produced water is characterized by low levels of nutrients and cell counts. The challenge is, therefore, how to measure the low bacterial growth potential (BGP) of such ultra-pure water using the available methods which were originally developed for conventionally treated drinking water. In this study, we proposed a protocol to assess BGP of ultra-pure drinking water produced by RO and post-treatment (including remineralization). Natural bacterial consortium from conventional drinking water was added to all water samples during this study to ensure the presence of a wide range of bacterial strains. The method development included developing an ultra-pure blank with high reproducibility to lower the detection limit of the BGP method (50 ± 20 × 103 intact cells/mL) compared with conventional blanks such as bottled spring water, deep groundwater treated by aeration and slow sand filtrate of surface water supply. The ultra-low blank consists of RO permeate after adjusting its pH and essential mineral content under controlled laboratory conditions to ensure carbon limitation. Regarding the test protocol, inoculum concentrations of >10 × 103 intact cells/mL may have a significant contribution to the measured low levels of BGP. Pasteurization of water samples before measuring BGP is necessary to ensure reliable bacterial growth curves. The optimized method was used to assess BGP of ultra-pure drinking water produced by RO membranes and post-treatment (including remineralization), where the BGP has decreased more than 6-fold to a level of 90 ± 20 × 103 intact cells/mL compared with conventionally treated water (630 ±

Drinking water and fire safety are strongly bonded to each other. Actual drinking water demand and fire flows are both delivered through the same network, and are both devoted to public health and safety. In The Netherlands, the discussion about fire flows supplied by the drinking water networks has drawn fire fighters and drinking water companies together, searching for novel approaches to improve public safety. One of these approaches is the application of residential fire sprinkler systems fed by drinking water. This approach has an impact on the layout of domestic drinking water systems (DDWSs), as extra plumbing is required. This study examined the influence of the added plumbing on quality of both fresh and 10 h stagnant water in two full scale DDWSs: a conventional and an extended system. Overnight stagnation was found to promote copper and zinc leaching from pipes in both DDWSs. Microbial numbers and viability in the stagnant water, measured by heterotrophic plate count (HPC), flow cytometry (FCM) and adenosine tri-phosphate (ATP), depended on the temperature of fresh water, as increased microbial numbers and viability was measured in both DDWSs when the temperature of fresh water was below the observed tipping point (15 °C for the HPC and 17 °C for the FCM and ATP measurements respectively) and vice versa. A high level of similarity between water and biofilm communities, >98% and >70–94% respectively, indicates that the extension of the DDWS did not affect either the microbial quality of fresh drinking water or the biofilm composition., Sanitary Engineering

This study assessed the characteristics of and changes in the suspended particles and the associated bacteria in an unchlorinated drinking water distribution system and its reservoirs with different water sources. The results show that particle-associated bacteria (PAB) were present at a level of 0.8–4.5?×?103 cells ml?1 with a biological activity of 0.01–0.04?ng l?1 ATP. Different PAB communities in the waters produced from different sources were revealed by a 16S rRNA-based pyrosequencing analysis. The quantified biomass underestimation due to the multiple cells attached per particle was???85%. The distribution of the biologically stable water increased the number of cells per particle (from 48 to 90) but had minor effects on the PAB community. Significant changes were observed at the mixing reservoir. Our results show the characteristics of and changes in suspended PAB during distribution, and highlight the significance of suspended PAB in the distribution system, because suspended PAB can lead to a considerable underestimation of biomass, and because they exist as biofilm, which has a greater mobility than pipe-wall biofilm and therefore presents a greater risk, given the higher probability that it will reach the customers’ taps and be ingested., Water Management, Civil Engineering and Geosciences

The investigations described are carried out to analyse the microbiological processes in relation to the GAC characteristics and the removal of natural organic matter (NOM) in Granular Activated Carbon filters (GACFs) in water treatment. The main goal of the study was to obtain a qualitative description of the interactions between microbial activity and the surface characteristics of GAC. For this purpose the concentration of active bacterial biomass in GACFs, the identity and properties of the predominating bacteria and the effects of the adsorptive properties of GAC on biodegradation were studied

Gedurende een periode van 3 jaar zijn er onder de vlag van het project DisConTO twee onderzoeken gedaan naar veranderingen van waterkwaliteit in drinkwaterdistributienetwerken. Het eerste bestond uit batchtesten om te kijken naar de groeipotentie van bacteriologische cellen in de tijd in water van verschillende drinkwaterproductiebedrijven. De gebruikte analysemethode (TCC) heeft potentie voor de toekomst als indicatorparameter. De methode is snel en toont eenzelfde trend als de huidige kweekmethoden. Het tweede onderzoek bracht het het effect in beeld van een nieuwe zuivering op de waterkwaliteit in het distributienet. Een verbeterde kwaliteit af pompstation is niet direct merkbaar in de periferie, dit duurt maanden.

Biologische stabiliteit wordt meestal gedefinieerd door nagroei van Aeromonas spp. en heterotrofe bacteriën, koloniegetal 22°C, in het distributienet. In het kader van DisConTO is statistisch onderzoek naar langjarige metingen van Aeromonas spp. en koloniegetallen 22°C in het voorzieningsgebied van Dunea uitgevoerd. De resultaten laten zien dat het aantal bacteriën voor beide parameters in de regio noord significant lager is dan in de regio zuid. De voorzichtige conclusie was dat de biologische stabiliteit van het drinkwater in de regio noord groter is dan in zuid. Toepassing van relatief nieuwe parameters, zoals de concentratie van adenosine trifosfaat en directe celtelling met flowcytometrie, werpt een nieuw licht op de zaak. Zijn de eerder gemaakte conclusies wel juist? En welke waarde hebben de resultaten van Aeromonas spp. en koloniegetallen 22°C nog bij de beoordeling van de biologische stabiliteit van het drinkwater?

Pellet softening reactors are used in centralized and decentralized drinking water treatment plants for the removal of calcium (hardness) through chemically induced precipitation of calcite. This is accomplished in fluidized pellet reactors, where a strong base is added to the influent to increase the pH and facilitate the process of precipitation on an added seeding material. Here we describe for the first time the opportunistic bacterial colonization of the calcite pellets in a full-scale pellet softening reactor and the functional contribution of these colonizing bacteria to the overall drinking water treatment process. ATP analysis, advanced microscopy, and community fingerprinting with denaturing gradient gel electrophoretic (DGGE) analysis were used to characterize the biomass on the pellets, while assimilable organic carbon (AOC), dissolved organic carbon, and flow cytometric analysis were used to characterize the impact of the biological processes on drinking water quality. The data revealed pellet colonization at concentrations in excess of 500 ng of ATP/g of pellet and reactor biomass concentrations as high as 220 mg of ATP/m3 of reactor, comprising a wide variety of different microorganisms. These organisms removed as much as 60% of AOC from the water during treatment, thus contributing toward the biological stabilization of the drinking water. Notably, only a small fraction (about 60,000 cells/ml) of the bacteria in the reactors was released into the effluent under normal conditions, while the majority of the bacteria colonizing the pellets were captured in the calcite structures of the pellets and were removed as a reusable product., Biotechnology, Applied Sciences

RIVM rapport:Een rekenmodel werd ontwikkeld om de verwijdering van micro-organismen door langzame zandfiltratie, een belangrijke zuiveringstap in de drinkwaterbereiding, te voorspellen onder verschillende bedrijfscondities. Deze bedrijfscondities zijn filtratiesnelheid, temperatuur, korrelgrootte en de Schmutzdecke, een slijmlaag op de zandfilters. De condities kunnen varieren afhankelijk van benodigde productiecapaciteit, weersomstandigheden en het drinkwaterbedrijf. Inzicht in de effecten van deze bedrijfscondities is van belang bij de vertaling tussen bedrijven of van literatuurgegevens naar bedrijf en daardoor ook van belang voor de wettelijk verplichte kwantitatieve microbiologische risicoschattingen. Het model werd ontwikkeld op grond van meetgegevens van voorgaand onderzoek op proefinstallatieschaal. De processen die de verwijdering van micro-organismen door langzame zandfiltratie bepalen, zijn hechting en zeefwerking. Ook het effect van de Schmutzdecke werd geevalueerd. De mate van hechting van een micro-organisme aan het zand is locatiespecifiek. Het model werd vervolgens gebruikt om de verwijdering van bacteriofaag MS2, E. coli en Cryptosporidium bij de vier drinkwaterbedrijven voor de voor deze bedrijven relevante bedrijfscondities te voorspellen en op basis daarvan onderzoeksvoorstellen op proefinstallatieschaal te formuleren om het model te valideren., A mathematical model was developed to predict removal of microorganisms by slow sand filtration, an important treatment in the production of drinking water, under a variety of conditions. These conditions are filtration rate, temperature, grain size and the Schmutzdecke, a slime layer on top of the sand filters. These conditions may vary dependent on required production capacity, weather conditions and the drinking water utility. Insight into the effects of these conditions matter for the translation of data between drinking water utilities and of literature data to utilities and are therefore also of importance for the legally obligated quantitative microbiological risk assessments. The model was developed using experimental data from previous research on pilot plant scale. The processes that determine removal of microorganisms by slow sand filtrations are attachment and straining. Also the effect of the Schmutzdecke was evaluated. The extent of attachment of microorganisms to sand appeared to be utility-specific. The model was applied to predict removal by slow sand filtration of bacteriophage MS2, E. coli and Cryptosporidium for four drinking water utilities under their relevant process conditions and to use these prediction to formulate research proposals on pilot plant scale in order to validate the model.

Welk onderzoek wordt momenteel in de wereld verricht op het gebied van gezondheidsgerelateerde watermicrobiologie? De groep Health Related Water Microbiology - de oudste en meest actieve groep van de International Water Association (IWA), die sinds 1980 om de twee jaar een symposium organiseert - trok dit jaar in Griekenland op zijn 15e jaarcongres het grootste aantal geïnteresseerden tot nu toe: 450 mensen. Nederland werd vertegenwoordigd door Saskia Rutjes en Willemijn Lodder (RIVM), Gertjan Medema, Wim Hijnen, Paul van der Wielen en Leo Heijnen (KWR), Geo Bakker (Vitens) en Aleksandra Magic-Knezev (Het Waterlaboratorium). Gedurende vijf dagen werden 30 sessies gehouden met 97 mondelinge presentaties en 230 posters. Hieronder volgt een korte samenvatting van de meest interessante en relevante resultaten die gepresenteerd werden

RIVM rapport:Het RIVM heeft samen met Kiwa Research en de waterleidingbedrijven Duinwaterbedrijf Zuid-Holland en Waternet gemeten hoe goed ziekteverwekkende wateroverdraagbare micro-organismen worden verwijderd door langzame zandfiltratie, een veel toegepaste techniek in de drinkwaterbereiding. Ongeveer een op de honderd virussen, een op de tienduizend bacterien en minder dan een op de honderdduizend parasitaire protozoa komt nog door de zandfilters. Dit zijn belangrijke gegevens voor de wettelijk verplichte schattingen van risicos op infectie door ziekteverwekkende micro-organismen na drinkwaterconsumptie. Langzame zandfiltratie, een van de laatste stappen in de drinkwaterzuivering, zeeft micro-organismen uit het water. De micro-organismen blijven achter omdat ze niet door porien tussen de zandkorrels passen (zeving) of doordat ze aan zandkorrels hechten. De verwijdering van virussen en bacterien is onderzocht in proefinstallatiefilters, die van protozoa in het laboratorium met kleine zandkolommen. Uit het onderzoek blijkt dat voor bacterien en protozoa zeving effectiever is dan voor de veel kleinere virussen. De concentratie van de micro-organismen in het toegevoerde water is niet van invloed. Ook de effecten van temperatuur en Schmutzdecke zijn onderzocht. De Schmutzdecke is een slijmlaag, die zich langzaam vormt op het zandfilter. Als de Schmutzdecke het zandfilter teveel verstopt, wordt deze afgeschraapt. Bij 9 - 12 graden C heeft de Schmutzdecke geen effect op verwijdering van virussen, maar bacterien worden met Schmutzdecke honderd keer meer verwijderd dan zonder. Bij 14 - 15 graden C worden alle micro-organismen ongeveer tien keer meer verwijderd dan bij 9 - 12 graden C. Na afschrapen is de werking van de Schmutzdecke binnen 53 dagen hersteld. Tenslotte wijst het onderzoek uit dat het zand van de twee onderzochte waterleidingbedrijven nagenoeg even werkzaam is., The removal of waterborne microorganisms by slow sand filtration, regularly applied in Dutch drinking water production as one of the last treatments in drinking water production, was determined. About one per hundred viruses, one per ten thousand bacteria and less than one per hundred thousand parasitic protozoa pass the sand filters. These estimates for removal of pathogens by slow sand filtration constitute some of the critical parameters for the production of safe drinking water as determined by quantitative microbiological risk assessment required by Dutch law. By slow sand filtration, microorganisms are retained because they are not able to pass pores between the sand grains (straining), and by attachment to sand grains. Removal of viruses and bacteria was investigated in pilot plants and that of protozoa in the laboratory with small sand columns. Bacteria and protozoa (1 - 6 mu-m) are strained more effectively than the much smaller viruses (0.02 - 0.2 mu-m). The concentration of the microorganisms in the feeding water of the slow sand filters does not affect removal efficiency. Effects of temperature and the Schmutzdecke were also studied. The Schmutzdecke is a slime layer that gradually forms on top of the sand filter. In operation the Schmutzdecke is scraped off when it clogs the filter too much. At 9 - 12 degrees C, scraping does not affect virus removal, but bacteria are removed a hundred times more when a Schmutzdecke is present than when it is absent. At 14 - 16 degrees C, all microorganisms are removed ten times more than at 9 - 12 degrees C. After scraping off, the efficacy of the Schmutzdecke was restored within 53 days. Finally, it was found that the sand of the two drinking water companies was almost equally effective.

Filtratie met behulp van actieve kool wordt in Nederland al 25 jaar toegepast voor de verwijdering van organische verbindingen die een ongewenste invloed hebben op de kleur, geur of smaak van drinkwater. Bovendien vormt filtratie met actieve kool met of zonder vooroxidatie een effectieve barrière tegen bestrijdingsmiddelen en andere organische microverontreinigingen. Biologische processen in de actief-koolfilters kunnen een bijdrage leveren aan de verwijdering van genoemde typen verbindingen, maar zijn met name van belang voor de verwijdering van gemakkelijk afbreekbare stoffen. Ozonisatie of een ander oxidatieproces voor actieve koolfiltratie gaat gepaard met de vorming van afbreekbare organische koolstof en leidt tot hogere biologische activiteit in de koolfilters. Het oxidatieproces en de biologische omzettingen verlagen de belasting van de adsorptiecapaciteit van actieve kool en leiden tot een verlenging van de looptijd. Een lagere regeneratiefrequentie is aantrekkelijk uit oogpunt van kosten en gunstig voor het milieu