Grantee Research Project Results
1998 Progress Report: Virus Attachment, Release, and Inactivation During Groundwater Transport
EPA Grant Number: R826179Title: Virus Attachment, Release, and Inactivation During Groundwater Transport
Investigators: Ryan, Joseph N. , Harvey, Ronald W. , Elimelech, Menachem
Institution: University of Colorado at Boulder , United States Geological Survey , Yale University
Current Institution: University of Colorado at Boulder , United States Geological Survey , University of California - Los Angeles
EPA Project Officer: Aja, Hayley
Project Period: January 13, 1998 through January 12, 2001 (Extended to January 12, 2002)
Project Period Covered by this Report: January 13, 1998 through January 12, 1999
Project Amount: $372,392
RFA: Exploratory Research - Environmental Chemistry (1997) RFA Text | Recipients Lists
Research Category: Water , Land and Waste Management , Air , Safer Chemicals
Objective:
The research outlined in this proposal will assist the EPA in better understanding the processes controlling natural disinfection. The following hypotheses will be addressed in this research: (1) Organic matter will enhance virus transport in aquifers by adsorbing to positively charged grain surfaces and occupying these favorable attachment sites. (2) The reversibility of virus attachment to aquifer sediments is controlled by heterogeneity of aquifer grains and virus interactions with different mineral and organic matter surfaces. (3) The transport of viruses during long-term release will be enhanced by blocking of favorable attachment sites by attached viruses. (4) The inactivation of viruses in groundwater is accelerated by strong, irreversible attachment, but not by weak, reversible attachment.Progress Summary:
Task 1: Virus Attachment and Release. Preliminary experiments have been conducted to design and construct the flow-through column to be used for exploring the effect of organic matter on virus attachment and release. The pump, column, monitoring, and fraction collection system has been designed and tested with tritiated water tracers.
Task 2: Virus Inactivation on Mineral Surfaces. We have completed the growth and radiolabeling of two bacteriophages, MS2 and PRD1, and measured their inactivation rates in ground waters from the Cape Cod field site with and without amendment by the addition of a surfactant (sodium dodecylbenzenesulfonate). Currently, we are conducting static column experiments to study the attachment and inactivation of these radiolabeled viruses in the presence of Cape Cod aquifer material. Preliminary results indicate that attachment accelerates the inactivation of these viruses, as hypothesized.
Task 3: Virus Transport in Continuous Injections. This task was originally slated as field work, but we have decided that these experiments could better be conducted in the laboratory, in intermediate-scale tanks.
Task 4: Virus Transport Model Development. We have completed the modification of a two-dimensional colloid transport model for a geochemically heterogeneous porous medium to a virus transport model by adding appropriate terms for inactivation (both in the aqueous and attached phases). The model is being tested for parameter sensitivity.
Future Activities:
The column experiments concerning virus attachment and release will be initiated when sufficient quantities of radiolabeled virus have been prepared. Experiments concerning virus transport in continuous injections are slated to begin during the summer of 1999. For virus transport model development, virus attachment dynamics (blocking) also will be added to model the results of the intermediate-scale tests.Journal Articles on this Report : 1 Displayed | Download in RIS Format
| Other project views: | All 14 publications | 4 publications in selected types | All 4 journal articles |
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Ryan JN, Elimelech M, Ard RA, Harvey RW, Johnson PR. Bacteriophage PRD1 and silica colloid transport and recovery in an iron oxide-coated sand aquifer. Environmental Science and Technology 1999;33:63-73. |
R826179 (1998) R826179 (1999) R826179 (Final) |
not available |
Supplemental Keywords:
drinking water, ground water, risk assessment, viruses, environmental chemistry, biology, hydrology., RFA, Scientific Discipline, Air, Water, Waste, Hydrology, Environmental Chemistry, Chemistry, Drinking Water, Groundwater remediation, Engineering, Chemistry, & Physics, monitoring, fate and transport, transport model, microbial risk assessment, pathogenic microbes, aquifer grain, natural disinfection, Groundwater Disinfection Rule, treatment, water quality, virus attachment, inactivation of virusesProgress and Final Reports:
Original AbstractThe perspectives, information and conclusions conveyed in research project abstracts, progress reports, final reports, journal abstracts and journal publications convey the viewpoints of the principal investigator and may not represent the views and policies of ORD and EPA. Conclusions drawn by the principal investigators have not been reviewed by the Agency.