Comparison of Microbial Removal Between Slow Dead-End Versus Tangential Sand Filtration.

Both river bank filtration and dead-end sand filtration are becoming increasingly applied in rural areas to improve the quality of fecally contaminated water. To evaluate the capacity of both treatments to remove E. coli, fecal streptococci, and somatic and K13-phages, this study investigates their concentrations in diluted wastewater after short-distance tangential sand filtration and dead-end sand filtration. Bacteria were almost undetectable in both systems after 60 cm depth, and at a pore-water velocity of 1 m/d. Both phages underwent removal of 2.5 logs by tangential filtration, whereas dead-end filtration removed 5.1 logs and 3.9 logs of K13-phages and somatic phages, respectively. After discounting removal by the schmutzdecke, observed only in the dead-end filtration, both systems removed phages similarly. It is concluded that short-distance river bank filtration, alone, does not meet WHO requirements for drinking water. However, the concomitant reduction of suspended solids renders the filtered water amenable to further treatment steps.

Virus removal vs. subsurface water velocity during slow sand filtration.

In an attempt to obtain a conservative estimate of virus removal during slow sand and river bank filtration, a somatic phage was isolated with slow decay and poor adsorption to coarse sand. We continuously fed a phage suspension to a 7-m infiltration path and measured the phage removal. In a second set of experiments, we fed the phage suspension to 1-m long columns run at different pore water velocities. Using the data obtained, a mathematical model was constructed describing removal vs. pore water velocity (PWV), assuming different statistical distributions of the adsorption coefficient λ. The bimodal distribution best fit the results for PWVs higher than 1 m/d. It predicted a removal of approximately 4 log10 after 50 days infiltration at 1 m/d. At PWVs below 1 m/d the model underestimated removal. Sand-bound phages dissociated slowly into the liquid phase, with a detachment constant kdet of 2.6 × 10⁻5. This low kdet suggests that river bank filtration plants should be intermittently operated when viral overload is suspected, e.g. during flooding events or at high water-marks in rivers, in order for viruses to become soil-associated during the periods of standstill. Resuming filtration will allow only a very slow virus release from the soil.

Removal of Surrogate Bacteriophages and Enteric Viruses from Seeded Environmental Waters Using a Semi-technical Ultrafiltration Unit.

Experiments to determine the removal of viruses in different types of water (surface water from two reservoirs for drinking water treatment, treated groundwater and groundwater contaminated with either 5 or 30 % of wastewater) by ultrafiltration were performed with a semi-technical ultrafiltration unit. Concentrations of human adenoviruses (HAdVs), murine norovirus (MNV), and the bacteriophages MS2, ΦX174 and PRD1 were measured in the feed water and the filtrate, and log removal values were calculated. Bacteria added to the feed water were not detected in the filtrates. In contrast, in most cases viruses and bacteriophages were still present in the filtrates: log removal values were in the range of 1.4-6.3 depending on virus sizes and water qualities. Best removals were observed with bacteriophage PRD1 and HAdVs, followed by MNV and phages MS2 and ΦX174. Virus size, however, was not the only criterion for efficient removal. In diluted wastewater as compared to drinking water and uncontaminated environmental waters, virus removal was clearly higher for all viruses, most likely due to higher membrane fouling. For quality assessment purposes of membrane filtration efficiencies with regard to the elimination of human viruses the small bacteriophages MS2 and ΦX174 should be used as conservative viral indicators.

Removal of bacterial fecal indicators, coliphages and enteric adenoviruses from waters with high fecal pollution by slow sand filtration.

The aim of the present study was to estimate the performance of slow sand filtration (SSF) facilities, including the time needed for reaching stabilization (maturation), operated with surface water bearing high fecal contamination, representing realistic conditions of rivers in many emerging countries. Surface water spiked with wastewater was infiltrated at different pore water velocities (PWV) and samples were collected at different migration distances. The samples were analyzed for phages and to a lesser extent for fecal bacteria and enteric adenoviruses. At the PWV of 50 cm/d, at which somatic phages showed highest removal, their mean log(10) removal after 90 cm migration was 3.2. No substantial differences of removal rates were observed at PWVs between 100 and 900 cm/d (2.3 log(10) mean removal). The log(10) mean removal of somatic phages was less than the observed for fecal bacteria and tended more towards that of enteric adenoviruses This makes somatic phages a potentially better process indicator than Escherichia coli for the removal of viruses in SSF. We conclude that SSF, and by inference in larger scale river bank filtration (RBF), is an excellent option as a component in multi-barrier systems for drinking water treatment also in areas where the sources of raw water are considerably fecally polluted, as often found in many emerging countries.

Estrogenic effect of leachates and soil extracts from lysimeters spiked with sewage sludge and reference endocrine disrupters.

Several experiments were conducted to evaluate the behavior and performance of some potential endocrine disrupters (ECDs). Two in vitro screening assays, one based on MCF7-cell proliferation (E-screen test) and the other on estrogenic receptor activity [enzyme-linked receptor assay (ELRA)], were used for the tests, which were done in lysimeters 80 cm in diameter with depth of 30 cm (shallow) or 90 cm (deep). A sandy soil was used to fill in all lysimeters, which were spiked on the surface with either: (a) a sewage sludge (SS) at a dose equivalent to 20 tons ha-1; (b) a mixture of reference ECDs, comprising 17 alpha- and 17 beta-estradiol (E2), nonylphenol, octylphenol, and bisphenol A at doses 100 times higher than the maximum concentrations respectively found in the applied SS; or (c) a mixture of ECDs and SS. After percolation of the lysimeters with rain and/or artificial water, five leachates were sampled from each lysimeter during a period of 210 days. Immediately after the lysimeter percolation experiments, four and six soil fractions were dissected from, respectively, the 30-cm and 90-cm lysimeters and extracted by water. Both the leachate and soil extract samples were analyzed for their estrogenicity using the assays indicated above. The E-screen assay was highly sensitive only for some leachate and extract samples but gave no response for most leachates and soil extracts. The results of the ELRA assay suggests a significantly higher estrogenicity of leachate samples from shallow lysimeters compared with that of leachates from deep lysimeters. In contrast, the estrogenic effect measured for soil extracts of shallow lysimeters was lower than that measured for soil extracts of deep lysimeters. The results of the E-screen assay suggests the occurrence of a fast mobilization of applied ECDs and a moderate retardation effect of native ECDs contained in applied SS in the sandy soil used in the lysimeters. In lysimeters spiked with a mixture of SS and ECDs, the washing-out effect of ECDs in the first leachate fraction decreased, but the distribution of ECDs in the lysimeters increased. The relatively high estrogenic impact measured for soil water extracts suggests that the ECDs were mostly associated with water-soluble fractions of organic matter and/or water-suspended fractions of the mineral soil matrix. The application of SS to agricultural and forest fields may determine the immobilization of ECDs in soil or their movement to surface and/or groundwater. Therefore, an endocrine risk of exposure exists for the water and soil organisms.