Abstract
Water systems are inherently vulnerable to physical, chemical, and biological threats that might compromise a systems’ ability to reliably deliver safe water. The ability of a water supply to provide water to its customers can be compromised by destroying or disrupting key physical elements of the water system. However, contamination is generally viewed as the most serious potential terrorist threat to water systems. Chemical or biological agents could spread throughout a distribution system and result in sickness or death among the consumers and for some agents the presence of the contaminant might not be known until emergency rooms report an increase in patients with a particular set of symptoms. Even without serious health impacts, just the knowledge that a water system had been breached could seriously undermine consumer confidence in public water supplies. Therefore the ability to rapidly detect contamination especially microbiological contamination is highly desirable. The authors discuss a technique for identifying microbiological contamination based on ATP bioluminescence. This assay allows an estimation of bacterial populations within minutes and can be applied using a local platform. Previous ATP-based methods require 1 h, 1 l of water and have a sensitivity of 100,000 cells for detection. The improved method discussed here is 100 times more sensitive, requires one-hundredth of the sample volume, and is over 10 times faster then standard method. The authors believe that this technique has a great deal of potential for application in situations in which a water system has been compromised.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Abbaszadegan, M. and Absar Alum, “Microbiological Contaminants and Threats of Concern,” in L.W. Mays (ed) Water Supply Systems Security, McGraw-Hill, New York, NY, pp. 2.1–2.12, 2004.
Angulo, F.J., S. Tippen, D.J. Sharp, B.J. Payne, C. Collier, J.E. Hill, T.J. Barrett, R.M. Clark, E.E. Geldreich, H.D. Donnell, and D.L. Swerdlow, A Community Waterborne Outbreak of Salmonellosis and the Effectiveness of a Boil Water Order. American Journal of Public Health, 87(4):580–584, 1997.
APHA (American Public Health Association), American Water Works Association (AWWA), Water Environment Federation (WEF). Standard Methods for the Examination of Water and Wastewater, 19th Edition, M.A. Franson, Mgn. Ed., American Public Health Association, Washington, DC, 1995.
ASTM d 4012-81, Standard test method for adenosine triphosphate (ATP) contents of microorganisms in water.
Burrows, W.D. and S.E. Renner, Biological Warfare Agents as Potable Water Threats, U.S. Army Combined Arms Support Command, Fort Lee, VA, p. 10, 1998.
Burrows, W.D. and S.E. Renner, Biological Agents as Threats to Potable Water. Environmental Health Perspective, 107(12): 975–984, 1999.
Bushon, R.N., A.M. Brady, C.A. Likirdopulos, and J.V. Cireddu, Rapid Detection of Escherichia coli and Enterococci in Recreational Water Using an Immunomagnetic Separation/Adenosine Triphosphate Technique. Journal of Applied Microbiology, 106(2): 432–441, Feb 2009.
Clark, R.M., “Assessing the Etiology of a Waterborne Outbreak: Public Health Emergency or Covert Attack,” in Jennifer Hatchett (ed), Proceedings of the First Water Security Summit, Haested, Heasted Methods, Waterbury, CT, pp. 170–179, 2002.
Clark, R.M. and R.A. Deininger, Protecting the Nation’s Critical Infrastructure: The Vulnerability of U.S. Water Supply Systems. Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management, 8(2): 73–80, 2000.
Clark, R.M. and R.A. Deininger, “Minimizing the Vulnerability of Water Supplies to Natural and Terrorist Threats” in Proceedings of the American Water Works Association’s IMTech Conference, Atlanta, GA, April 8–11, pp. 1–20, 2001.
Clark, R.M., L. Rossman, and L. Wymer, Modeling Distribution System Water Quality: Regulatory Implications. Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management, ASCE, 121(6): 423–428, Nov/Dec 1995.
Clark, R.M., E.E. Geldreich, K.R. Fox, E.W. Rice, C.H. Johnson, J.A. Goodrich, J.A. Bsarnick, and F. Abdesaken, Tracking a Salmonella Serovar Typhimurium Outbreak in Gideon, Missouri: Role of Contaminant Propagation Modeling, Journal of Water Supply Research and Technology-Aqua 45(4): 171–183, 1996.
Deininger, R.A. and J. Lee, “Rapid Determination of Bacteria in Water.” in Water Quality Technology Conference, Proceedings, American Water Works Association, San Diego, CA, November 1–4, 1998.
Deininger, R.A. and J. Lee, “Rapid Determination of Bacterial Loads for the Assessment of Water Quality, Detection Technologies 2007, San Diego, CA, November 2, 2007.
Deininger, R.A., J. Lee, and P. Klangsin, Rapid Onsite Determination of Bacteria in a Water Distribution System, American Water Works Association, Norfolk, VA, June 7–8, 1997.
Delahaye, E., B. Welte, Y. Levi, G. Leblon, and A. Montiel, An ATP-Based Method for Monitoring the Microbiological Drinking Water Quality in a Distribution Network. Water Research, 37: 3689–3696, 2003, Elsevier Science Ltd.
Federal Register. National Primary Drinking Water Regulations: Analytical Techniques. Coliform Bacteria, Federal Budget. U.S.EPA 55: 22752–22756, 1990.
Fennel, H., D.B. James, and J. Morris, Pollution of a Storage Reservoir by Roosting Gulls. Journal of Society of Water Treatment Exam, 23:5–24, 1974.
Field, M. S., “Assessing the Risks to Drinking-Water Supplies from Terrorists Attacks,” in L.W. Mays (ed) Water Supply Systems Security, McGraw-Hill, New York, NY, pp. 6.1–6.26, 2004.
Fox, K.R. and D.A. Lytle, Milwaukee’s Crypto Outbreak Investigations and recommendations. Journal of the American Water Works Association, 88(9): 87–94, 1996.
Frundzhyan, V. and N. Ugarova, Bioluminescent Assay for Total Bacterial Contamination of Drinking Water. Luminescence, 22: 241–244, 2007.
Geldreich, E.E., K.R. Fox, J.A. Goodrich, E.W. Rice, R.M. Clark, and D.L. Swerdlow, Searching for a Water Supply Connection in the Cabool, Missouri Disease Outbreak of Escherichia coli O157:H7. Water Research, 26(8): 1127–1137, 1992.
Gleick, P.H., Water and Terrorism. Water Policy 8: 481–503, 2006.
Grayman, W.M., R.M. Clark, B.L. Harding, M.L. Maslia, and J. Aramini, “Reconstructing Historical Contamination Events,” in L.W. Mays (ed) Water Supply Systems Security, McGraw-Hill, New York, NY, Pp. 10.1–10.55, 2004.
Hrudey. S.E. and E.J. Hrudey, Safe Drinking Water : Lessons from Recent Outbreaks in Affluent Nations. IWA Publishing, London, 2004.
Lee, J. and R.A. Deininger, A Rapid Method for Detecting Bacteria in Drinking Water. Journal of Rapid Method and Automation in Microbiology, 7: 135–145, 1999.
Lee, J. and R.A. Deininger, Rapid Quantification of Viable Bacteria in Water Using an ATP Assay. American Labaratory News, 33(21): 21–26, 2001.
Lee, J. and R.A. Deininger, Real Time Determination of the Efficacy of Residual Disinfection to Limit Sewage Contamination in a Water Distribution System Using Filtration Based Luminescence. Water Environment Research 82(5): 474–478, 2010.
Lee, C. et al. Cov-IMS/ATP Enables Rapid In-field Detection and Quantification of Escherichia coli and Enterococcus spp. in Freshwater and Marine Environment. Journal of Applied Microbiology, 109(1): 324–333, 2010.
Meier, T., J. Lee, and R.A. Deininger, et al., Quantification, Distribution and Possible Source of Bacterial Bio-film in Rodent Automated Watering Systems. Journal of the American Association of Laboratory Animal Science, JAALAS, 47(2): 63–70, 2008.
Michigan Department of Community Health, January 29, 2002.
New York Times, White House water cut off temporarily. July 10, p. 16, 1986.
Rice, E.W., R.M. Clark, and C.H. Johnson, Chlorine Inactivation of Escherichia coli O157:H7. Emerging Infectious Diseases, 5(3): 461–463, May–June 1999.
Rossman, L.A., R.M. Clark, and W.M. Grayman, Modeling Chlorine Residuals in Drinking Water Distribution Systems. Journal of Environmental Engineering, 120(4): 803–820. July/August 1994.
Skala, M.F., Waterborne Salmonella Outbreak in Southeastern Missouri. Missouri Epidemiologist, 17(2): 1–2, 1994.
The Walkerton Herald Times, Vol. 141, No. 31, Wednesday, August 2, 2000.
Wall Street Journal , 2008, “China Turns Away Shipment of Evian, Australian Seafood, May 30, 2007.
Webster, A.H., J. Lee, and R.A. Deininger, Rapid Assessment of Microbial Hazards in Metal Working Fluids. Journal of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene, 2: 243–218, April 2005.
Weilen, P.W.J.J. and Dick van der Kooij, Adenosine Tri Phosphate (ATP) as a Parameter to Determine Microbiological Activity in Distributed Drinking Water, Elsevier, Water Research, 44(17): 4860–4867, 2010.
Williams, P. and D. Wallace, Unit 731, The Japanese Army’s Secret of Secrets, Hodder & Stoughton, London, 1989.
World Health Organization, Health aspects of chemical and biological weapons, Appendix 5, 1970.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2011 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Deininger, R.A., Lee, J., Clark, R.M. (2011). Rapid Detection of Bacteria in Drinking Water and Wastewater Treatment Plants. In: Clark, R., Hakim, S., Ostfeld, A. (eds) Handbook of Water and Wastewater Systems Protection. Protecting Critical Infrastructure, vol 2. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-0189-6_10
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-0189-6_10
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4614-0188-9
Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-0189-6
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)