You are here:
OVERVIEW OF USEPA MICROBIOLOGICAL RESEARCH IN DRINKING WATER
Citation:
Reasoner*, D J. OVERVIEW OF USEPA MICROBIOLOGICAL RESEARCH IN DRINKING WATER. Presented at AWWA 2003 Ohio Section Conference, Cincinnati, OH, 09/22-26/2003.
Description:
The Microbial Contaminants Control Branch (MCCB) conducts research on microbiological problems related to drinking water treatment, distribution and storage, and has recently become involved in watershed and source water quality issues such as fecal indicator bacteria and fecal pathogen source tracking. The mission of the MCCB is to provide the USEPA program offices with data based on sound science that can be used in the development of drinking water and water quality regulations, or for revising current regulations. Over the past few years, the MCCB has conducted a variety of research studies including: identification of bacteria isolated from drinking water; microbiology of point-of-use water treatment, occurrence and persistence of total coliform bacteria in distribution systems, bacterial detection methods, and methods for assaying bacterial nutrients in water. More recently, MCCB has been involved in disinfection studies of bacteria on the contaminant candidate list (CCL) including Aeromonas species and Helicobacter pylori. As a result of the events since 9/11, disinfection studies of Bacillus cereus and B. thuringiensis, as surrogates for B. anthracis, have been conducted. Distribution system research is being conducted using the distribution system simulator (DSS) at the USEPA's Test and Evaluation Facility. Finally, the MCCB has begun a research program to evaluate the use of molecular biology techniques to study microbial problems in drinking water, and for use in microbial source tracking and TMDL development. Future work will involve inactivation studies of any microbes on the second CCL, due to be released in the near future.