Premium
A Spike Cocktail Approach to Improve Microbial Performance Monitoring for Water Reuse
Author(s) -
Zimmerman Brian D.,
Korajkic Asja,
Brinkman Nichole E.,
Grimm Ann C.,
Ashbolt Nicholas J.,
Garland Jay L.
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
water environment research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.356
H-Index - 73
eISSN - 1554-7531
pISSN - 1061-4303
DOI - 10.2175/106143016x14609975747522
Subject(s) - reuse , process (computing) , risk analysis (engineering) , computer science , biochemical engineering , wastewater reuse , protocol (science) , engineering , business , waste management , operating system , medicine , alternative medicine , pathology
Water reuse, via either centralized treatment of traditional wastewater or decentralized treatment and on‐site reuse, is becoming an increasingly important element of sustainable water management. Despite advances in waterborne pathogen detection methods, low and highly variable pathogen levels limit their utility for routine evaluation of health risks in water reuse systems. Therefore, there is a need to improve our understanding of the linkage between pathogens and more readily measured process indicators during treatment. This paper describes an approach for constructing spiking experiments to relate the behavior of viral, bacterial, and protozoan pathogens with relevant process indicators. General issues are reviewed, and the spiking protocol is applied as a case study example to improve microbial performance monitoring and health risk evaluation in a water reuse system. This approach provides a foundation for the development of novel approaches to improve real or near‐real time performance monitoring of water recycling systems.