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THE HISTORY AND USE OF HPC IN DRINKING WATER QUALITY MANAGEMENT
Citation:
Payment, P., D. P. Sartory, AND D J. Reasoner*. THE HISTORY AND USE OF HPC IN DRINKING WATER QUALITY MANAGEMENT. Chapter 3, J. Bartram, J. Cotruvo, M. Exner, C. Fricker, A. Glasmacher (ed.), Heterotrophic Plate Counts and Drinking-water Safety. The Significance of HPCs for Water Quality and Human Health. IWA Publishing, London, Uk.
Description:
The birth of microbiology in 19th century Europe was the basis for water and food microbiology and the first step in understanding the role of water and food as vehicles for the transmission of disease. By the end of the 19th century, it became possible to obtain what appeared to be quite accurate counts of germs by counting the number of colonies developing on culture plates using a defined set of conditions. The simplicity of the method was such that it was rapidly put to use by the 19th century sanitarian. Air, water, soil, food, humans and animals were all studied to determine where and how germs lived as they were apparently responsible for a wide variety of waterborne and food borne diseases. Now, early in the 21st century, reviewing the accounts of these 19th century sanitarian, there is a striking similarity between our so-called modern problems and the problems they had to resolve. The questions they raised are the same as those that currently concern us. In terms of water quality, it is fascinating to observe that the order of magnitude of the numerical values used to define what is good quality water have remained the same. This chapter reviews the development and use of heterotrophic plate counts (HPCs) to estimate the general bacterial density of drinking water, and the use of the HPC results in water quality management.