Inclusion of hydrodynamic properties of bathing waters is critical in selecting faecal indicators to assess public health impacts of faecal contamination.

Autor: Martin NA; UCD School of Biomolecular and Biomedical Science, UCD Earth Institute and UCD Conway Institute, University College Dublin, Dublin 4, Ireland., Sala-Comorera L; UCD School of Biomolecular and Biomedical Science, UCD Earth Institute and UCD Conway Institute, University College Dublin, Dublin 4, Ireland., Gao G; UCD School of Civil Engineering, UCD Dooge Centre for Water Resources Research and UCD Earth Institute, University College Dublin, Dublin 4, Ireland., Corkery A; UCD School of Civil Engineering, UCD Dooge Centre for Water Resources Research and UCD Earth Institute, University College Dublin, Dublin 4, Ireland., Reynolds LJ; UCD School of Biomolecular and Biomedical Science, UCD Earth Institute and UCD Conway Institute, University College Dublin, Dublin 4, Ireland., Nolan TM; UCD School of Biomolecular and Biomedical Science, UCD Earth Institute and UCD Conway Institute, University College Dublin, Dublin 4, Ireland., Whitty M; UCD School of Biomolecular and Biomedical Science, UCD Earth Institute and UCD Conway Institute, University College Dublin, Dublin 4, Ireland., O'Sullivan JJ; UCD School of Civil Engineering, UCD Dooge Centre for Water Resources Research and UCD Earth Institute, University College Dublin, Dublin 4, Ireland., Meijer WG; UCD School of Biomolecular and Biomedical Science, UCD Earth Institute and UCD Conway Institute, University College Dublin, Dublin 4, Ireland. Electronic address: wim.meijer@ucd.ie.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Water research [Water Res] 2023 Aug 15; Vol. 242, pp. 120137. Date of Electronic Publication: 2023 May 28.
DOI: 10.1016/j.watres.2023.120137
Abstrakt: The EU Bathing Water Directive (BWD) requires member states to assess bathing water quality according to the levels of faecal indicator bacteria (FIB) in designated bathing areas. However, this criterion has two significant limitations given that the BWD does not; (i) account for differences in hydrodynamic properties of bathing waters and, (ii) assumes that all faecal pathogens decay equally in aquatic environments. This study simulated sewage discharge events in three hypothetical aquatic environments characterised by different advection and dispersion parameters in the solute transport equation. Temporal changes in the downstream concentration of six faecal indicators were determined in simulations that utilised measured decay rates of each faecal indicator from a programme of controlled microcosm experiments in fresh and seawater environments. The results showed that the decay rates of faecal indicators are not a critical parameter in advection dominant water bodies, such as in fast-flowing rivers. Therefore, faecal indicator selection is less important in such systems and for these, FIB remains the most cost-effective faecal indicator to monitor the public health impacts of faecal contamination. In contrast, consideration of faecal indicator decay is important when assessing dispersion and advection/dispersion dominant systems, which would pertain to transitional (estuarine) and coastal waterbodies. Results suggest that the inclusion of viral indicators, such as crAssphage and PMMoV, could improve the reliability of water quality modelling and minimise the risk of waterborne illnesses from faecal contamination.
Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
(Copyright © 2023. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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