Assessing microbial growth in drinking water using nucleic acid content and flow cytometry fingerprinting.

This study utilizes flow cytometry (FCM) to evaluate the high nucleic acid (HNA) and low nucleic acid (LNA) content of intact cells for monitoring bacterial dynamics in drinking water treatment and supply systems. Our findings indicate that chlorine and nutrients differently impact components of bacterial populations. HNA bacteria, characterized by high metabolic rates, quickly react to nutrient alterations, making them suitable indicators of growth under varying water treatment and supply conditions.

Predicting the impact of underwater skimming on dissolved oxygen consumption in slow sand filters for potable water treatment.

In a well-functioning slow sand filter (SSF), dissolved oxygen (DO) is crucial for enabling aerobic processes and microbiota growth. Given that DO supply is predominantly via the feed water, flow pauses (e.g.

Nutrient Removal and Recovery from Urine Using Bio-Mineral Formation Processes.

Harvesting nutrients from waste presents a promising initiative to advance and deliver the circular economy in the water sector while mitigating local shortages of mineral fertilizers worldwide. Urine, a small fraction of municipal wastewater, holds substantial amounts of nitrogen, orthophosphate (PO-P), and chemical oxygen demand (COD). Separating urine aids targeted nutrient recovery, emissions reduction, and releasing capacity in wastewater treatment plants and taps into overlooked vital nutrients like magnesium (Mg) and potassium (K), essential for plant growth.

How bioaugmentation for pesticide removal influences the microbial community in biologically active sand filters.

Removing pesticides from biological drinking water filters is challenging due to the difficulty in activating pesticide-degrading bacteria within the filters. Bioaugmented bacteria can alter the filter's microbiome, affecting its performance either positively or negatively, depending on the bacteria used and their interaction with native microbes. We demonstrate that adding specific bacteria strains can effectively remove recalcitrant pesticides, like metaldehyde, yielding compliance to regulatory standards for an extended period.

Comparison of gene targets and sampling regimes for SARS-CoV-2 quantification for wastewater epidemiology in UK prisons.

Prisons are high-risk settings for infectious disease transmission, due to their enclosed and semi-enclosed environments. The proximity between prisoners and staff, and the diversity of prisons reduces the effectiveness of non-pharmaceutical interventions, such as social distancing. Therefore, alternative health monitoring methods, such as wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE), are needed to track pathogens, including SARS-CoV-2.

Trapping and bypassing of suspended particulate matter, particulate nutrients and faecal indicator organisms in the river-estuary transition zone of a shallow macrotidal estuary.

Hydrodynamic controls of the transport of suspended particulate matter (SPM), particulate nutrients and faecal indicator organisms (FIOs) in the river-estuary transition zone (RETZ) of a shallow macrotidal estuary were studied on tidal and seasonal timescales. The RETZ was found to be a conduit for SPM rather than a zone of particle accumulation during spring tides, with complex size fractionation and biogeochemical exchanges of particulate nutrient/FIO compositions. The downstream RETZ was characterised by flood-dominant currents, but with ebb-dominant turbulence due to the suppression of flood tide turbulence by salinity stratification created by lateral convergence; this produced a net seaward mass transport of SPM.

Wastewater-based epidemiology for surveillance of infectious diseases in healthcare settings.

Purpose Of Review: Wastewater-based surveillance (WBS) (epidemiology) using near-source sampling (NSS) in large buildings, hospitals and care homes is reviewed covering three main areas: state-of-the-art WBS, benefits/opportunities NSS has for hospital infection control systems and new insights from hospital wastewater surveillance and policy implications.

Recent Findings: Wastewater provides aggregate, anonymous sources of data where the spatial resolution can be linked to populations being served. In hospitals, clear links established between wastewater RNA-fragments signal to nosocomial COVID-19 cases/outbreaks.

Wastewater monitoring for detection of public health markers during the COVID-19 pandemic: Near-source monitoring of schools in England over an academic year.

Background: Schools are high-risk settings for infectious disease transmission. Wastewater monitoring for infectious diseases has been used to identify and mitigate outbreaks in many near-source settings during the COVID-19 pandemic, including universities and hospitals but less is known about the technology when applied for school health protection. This study aimed to implement a wastewater surveillance system to detect SARS-CoV-2 and other public health markers from wastewater in schools in England.

Inhibitory mechanisms on dry anaerobic digestion: Ammonia, hydrogen and propionic acid relationship.

Inhibitory pathways in dry anaerobic digestion are still understudied and current knowledge on wet processes cannot be easily transferred. This study forced instability in pilot-scale digesters by operating at short retention times (40 and 33 days) in order to understand inhibition pathways over long term operation (145 days). The first sign of inhibition at elevated total ammonia concentrations (8 g/l) was a headspace hydrogen level over the thermodynamic limit for propionic degradation, causing propionic accumulation.

Multifunctional Heterogeneous Ion-Exchange Membranes for Ion and Microbe Removal in Low-Salinity Water.

Here, multifunctional heterogeneous ion-exchange metal nanocomposite membranes were prepared for surface water desalination and bacterial inactivation under low-pressure (0.05 MPa) filtration conditions. Ultrafiltration (UF) heterogeneous ion exchange membranes (IEMs) were modified with different concentrations of AgNO and CuSO solutions using the intermatrix synthesis (IMS) technique to produce metal nanocomposite membranes.

Molecular insights informing factors affecting low temperature anaerobic applications: Diversity, collated core microbiomes and complexity stability relationships in LCFA-fed systems.

Fats, oil and grease, and their hydrolyzed counterparts-long chain fatty acids (LCFA) make up a large fraction of numerous wastewaters and are challenging to degrade anaerobically, more so, in low temperature anaerobic digestion (LtAD) systems. Herein, we perform a comparative analysis of publicly available Illumina 16S rRNA datasets generated from LCFA-degrading anaerobic microbiomes at low temperatures (10 and 20 °C) to comprehend the factors affecting microbial community dynamics. The various factors considered were the inoculum, substrate and operational characteristics, the reactor operation mode and reactor configuration, and the type of nucleic acid sequenced.

Detection and characterization of bioaerosol emissions from wastewater treatment plants: Challenges and opportunities.

Rapid population growth and urbanization process have led to increasing demand for wastewater treatment capacity resulting in a non-negligible increase of wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) in several cities around the world. Bioaerosol emissions from WWTPs may pose adverse health risks to the sewage workers and nearby residents, which raises increasing public health concerns. However, there are still significant knowledge gaps on the interplay between process-based bioaerosol characteristics and exposures and the quantification of health risk which limit our ability to design effective risk assessment and management strategies.

Dissemination of metaldehyde catabolic pathways is driven by mobile genetic elements in Proteobacteria.

Bioremediation of metaldehyde from drinking water using metaldehyde-degrading strains has recently emerged as a promising alternative. Whole-genome sequencing was used to obtain full genomes for metaldehyde degraders E1 and CMET-H. For the former, the genetic context of the metaldehyde-degrading genes had not been explored, while for the latter, none of the degrading genes themselves had been identified.

First insights into the prokaryotic community structure of Lake Cote, Costa Rica: Influence on nutrient cycling.

Prokaryotic diversity in lakes has been studied for many years mainly focusing on community structure and how the bacterial assemblages are driven by physicochemical conditions such as temperature, oxygen, and nutrients. However, little is known about how the composition and function of the prokaryotic community changes upon lake stratification. To elucidate this, we studied Lake Cote in Costa Rica determining prokaryotic diversity and community structure in conjunction with physicochemistry along vertical gradients during stratification and mixing periods.

Resin-Loaded Heterogeneous Polyether Sulfone Ion Exchange Membranes for Saline Groundwater Treatment.

Arid areas often contain brackish groundwater that has a salinity exceeding 500 mg/L. This poses several challenges to the users of the water such as a salty taste and damage to household appliances. Desalination can be one of the key solutions to significantly lower the salinity and solute content of the water.

Coliphages as viral indicators of sanitary significance for drinking water.

Coliphages are virus that infect coliform bacteria and are used in aquatic systems for risk assessment for human enteric viruses. This mini-review appraises the types and sources of coliphage and their fate and behavior in source waters and engineered drinking water treatment systems. Somatic (cell wall infection) and F (male specific) coliphages are abundant in drinking water sources and are used as indicators of fecal contamination.

Monitoring occurrence of SARS-CoV-2 in school populations: A wastewater-based approach.

Clinical testing of children in schools is challenging, with economic implications limiting its frequent use as a monitoring tool of the risks assumed by children and staff during the COVID-19 pandemic. Here, a wastewater-based epidemiology approach has been used to monitor 16 schools (10 primary, 5 secondary and 1 post-16 and further education) in England. A total of 296 samples over 9 weeks have been analysed for N1 and E genes using qPCR methods.

Probe-based qPCR assay enables the rapid and specific detection of bacterial degrading genes for the pesticide metaldehyde in soil.

Metaldehyde, a molluscicide pesticide, has been identified as a pollutant of concern due to its repeated detection in drinking water, thereby generating numerous compliance failures for water utilities. Biological degradation potential for metaldehyde is widespread in soils, occurring at different rates, but to date, no molecular methods for its assessment have been reported. Here, three genes belonging to a shared metaldehyde-degrading gene cluster present in bacteria were used as candidates for development of a quantitative PCR (qPCR) assay for assessing the metaldehyde-degrading potential in soil.

Making Waves: Collaboration in the time of SARS-CoV-2 - rapid development of an international co-operation and wastewater surveillance database to support public health decision-making.

The presence of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in wastewater was first reported in March 2020. Over the subsequent months, the potential for wastewater surveillance to contribute to COVID-19 mitigation programmes has been the focus of intense national and international research activities, gaining the attention of policy makers and the public. As a new application of an established methodology, focused collaboration between public health practitioners and wastewater researchers is essential to developing a common understanding on how, when and where the outputs of this non-invasive community-level approach can deliver actionable outcomes for public health authorities.