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USE OF INDICATOR ORGANISMS FOR DETERMINING PROCESS EFFECTIVENESS
Citation:
Meckes*, M C. USE OF INDICATOR ORGANISMS FOR DETERMINING PROCESS EFFECTIVENESS. Presented at WEFTEC 2004 Workshop: Pathogen Concerns With Residuals Management, New Orleans, LA, October 02 - 06, 2004.
Impact/Purpose:
To inform the public.
Description:
Wastewaters, process effluents and treatment process residuals contain a variety of microorganisms. Many factors influence their densities as they move through collection systems and process equipment. Biological treatment systems rely on the catabolic processes of such microorganisms to remove organic and nitrogenous materials from wastewaters. However, pathogenic microorganisms within wastewaters and their residuals can pose a threat to public health. Consequently, removal and/or inactivation of pathogens through process operations is practiced to minimize the possibility of exposure. Monitoring process operations for removal of specific pathogenic organisms may be difficult and quite expensive. Development of adequate pathogen monitoring through the use of indicators is one of the key priorities for the wastewater management industry, municipalities, international water and wastewater organizations, Water Environment Research Foundation (WERF) and the United States Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA). Indicator organisms are monitored to provide information regarding potential microbial pathogens in a waste matrix. Currently, the process of spiking waste matrices with non-indigenous surrogate pathogens, such as Poliovirus and Ascaris suum eggs, is labor-intensive, time consuming and potentially dangerous to human health. Indicator organisms indigenous to sludge, wastewater or run-off, are less expensive to assess and are easily quantified. Ideal indicator organisms are needed to assess the presence of pathogens in the waste matrices, to monitor the fate of potential pathogens during processing and land application and should correlate well with known pathogenic strains so that the risk of exposure may be estimated. Several researchers have collected data on potential indicator organisms in a variety of waste matrices. The results of this research will be discussed.