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Microbial Survey of a Full-Scale, Biologically Active Filter for Treatment of Drinking Water
Citation:
White, C. P., R. W. DeBry, AND D. A. LYTLE. Microbial Survey of a Full-Scale, Biologically Active Filter for Treatment of Drinking Water. APPLIED AND ENVIRONMENTAL MICROBIOLOGY. American Society for Microbiology, Washington, DC, 78(17):6390-6394, (2012).
Impact/Purpose:
To inform the public.
Description:
Biological nitrification has been used as a reliable technology in wastewater treatment for decades. Implementing biological approaches to drinking water treatment has faced resistance in the United States due in part to the lack of understanding of microbial processes and concerns of biostability of microbial populations in biologically active filters. The objective of this study was to apply culture and non-culture based biological methods to identify the microbial community of a full scale biologically active drinking water filter reported to have ammonia and arsenic oxidation capabilities. Results showed that 1.13 mg/L of ammonia nitrogen was consistently oxidized to nitrate without any effects of seasonal variation. The major ammonia oxidizers were identified as Nitrosomonas based on amoA clone libraries. In addition to several dozen genera, 16S clone libraries confirmed that Nitrosomonas was the dominant ammonia oxidizer and Nitrospira was the dominant nitrite oxidizer. Members of Sphingomonas and Rhizobiales were also found to dominate the clone libraries. Together, these results shed light on the microbial ecology of biologically active filters and show that biologically treatment of drinking water is both reliable and safe.
