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The Effect of Some Oil Shale Process Waters Upon the Viability of Indicator Bacteria
Author(s) -
Adams J. C.,
Farrier D. S.
Publication year - 1982
Publication title -
journal of environmental quality
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.888
H-Index - 171
eISSN - 1537-2537
pISSN - 0047-2425
DOI - 10.2134/jeq1982.00472425001100020005x
Subject(s) - serial dilution , bacteria , environmental chemistry , oil shale , environmental science , pulp and paper industry , filtration (mathematics) , chemistry , indicator bacteria , fecal coliform , biology , water quality , ecology , medicine , paleontology , genetics , alternative medicine , statistics , mathematics , pathology , engineering
This research was undertaken to determine if a spill of oil shale process waters could have a detrimental effect upon the numbers of indicator bacteria in receiving waters. The first objective was to determine the effect of four process waters upon pure cultures of members of total and fecal coliforms and fecal streptococci. The second objective was to determine the effect of the process waters on these organisms in freshly collected water samples. The pure‐culture studies were done by inoculating the organisms into various dilutions of the process waters and plating with time on selective and nonselective media. Secondly, water samples diluted with various amounts of process waters and allowed to stand for 5 hours at 4°C were processed by standard membrane‐filtration procedures. The effect of the process waters upon the viability of the test bacteria depended upon the concentration and type of process water. Death and injury occurred in some cases. Process waters diluted 1:100 had no adverse effect upon the bacteria studied.