Drinking water microbiology in a water-efficient building: stagnation, seasonality, and physicochemical effects on opportunistic pathogen and total bacteria proliferation

Ley, Christian; Proctor, Caitlin R.; Singh, Gulshan; Ra, Kyungyeon; Noh, Yoorae; Odimayomi, Tolulope; Salehi, Maryam; Julien, Ryan; Mitchell, Jade; Nejadhashemi, A. Pouyan; Whelton, Andrew J.; Aw, Tiong Gim

doi:10.1039/d0ew00334d

Cited by 52 publications

(86 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…Such water quality changes have been related to increased levels of OPs in premise plumbing systems [ 39 , 243 , 244 , 245 ]. In a field sampling study of main water distribution system, 120 water samples were taken throughout a drinking water distribution system.…”

Section: Influence Of Plumbing System Design Configuration and Opmentioning

confidence: 99%

Critical Review: Propensity of Premise Plumbing Pipe Materials to Enhance or Diminish Growth of Legionella and Other Opportunistic Pathogens

et al. 2020

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Growth of Legionella pneumophila and other opportunistic pathogens (OPs) in drinking water premise plumbing poses an increasing public health concern. Premise plumbing is constructed of a variety of materials, creating complex environments that vary chemically, microbiologically, spatially, and temporally in a manner likely to influence survival and growth of OPs. Here we systematically review the literature to critically examine the varied effects of common metallic (copper, iron) and plastic (PVC, cross-linked polyethylene (PEX)) pipe materials on factors influencing OP growth in drinking water, including nutrient availability, disinfectant levels, and the composition of the broader microbiome. Plastic pipes can leach organic carbon, but demonstrate a lower disinfectant demand and fewer water chemistry interactions. Iron pipes may provide OPs with nutrients directly or indirectly, exhibiting a high disinfectant demand and potential to form scales with high surface areas suitable for biofilm colonization. While copper pipes are known for their antimicrobial properties, evidence of their efficacy for OP control is inconsistent. Under some circumstances, copper’s interactions with premise plumbing water chemistry and resident microbes can encourage growth of OPs. Plumbing design, configuration, and operation can be manipulated to control such interactions and health outcomes. Influences of pipe materials on OP physiology should also be considered, including the possibility of influencing virulence and antibiotic resistance. In conclusion, all known pipe materials have a potential to either stimulate or inhibit OP growth, depending on the circumstances. This review delineates some of these circumstances and informs future research and guidance towards effective deployment of pipe materials for control of OPs.

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Section: Influence Of Plumbing System Design Configuration and Opmentioning

confidence: 99%

Critical Review: Propensity of Premise Plumbing Pipe Materials to Enhance or Diminish Growth of Legionella and Other Opportunistic Pathogens

et al. 2020

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“…These are all critical aspects related to Legionella persistence in man-made systems that contribute to a higher or lower legionellosis risk. The studies considered in Table 1 cover different water settings, including cooling towers [55][56][57], premise plumbing from hospitals [51,52,54,[58][59][60][61][62][63][64] and hotels [45,48,[64][65][66][67][68][69], residential potable water systems [46,70,71], and other facilities [72][73][74][75][76][77][78].…”

Section: Main Research Topicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…High Legionella prevalence regardless of the water system [45,46,56,57,63,[67][68][69] Legionella incidence seems to be seasonal dependent [64,69,71,73]…”

Section: Legionella Widespreadmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Chemical Disinfection Programs shape bacterial communities and reduce Legionella positivities (chlorination, chloramine, chlorine dioxide, copper-silver ionization, hydrogen peroxide and silver salts, NEOW) [51,52,54,56,61,62,66,72,73,[79][80][81] Effective temperature control reduces Legionella incidence [60,70,82] Water stagnation vs. water flushing [48,59,65,71,78,83]…”

Section: Microbial Control Strategiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Legionella and Biofilms—Integrated Surveillance to Bridge Science and Real-Field Demands

2021

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Legionella is responsible for the life-threatening pneumonia commonly known as Legionnaires’ disease or legionellosis. Legionellosis is known to be preventable if proper measures are put into practice. Despite the efforts to improve preventive approaches, Legionella control remains one of the most challenging issues in the water treatment industry. Legionellosis incidence is on the rise and is expected to keep increasing as global challenges become a reality. This puts great emphasis on prevention, which must be grounded in strengthened Legionella management practices. Herein, an overview of field-based studies (the system as a test rig) is provided to unravel the common roots of research and the main contributions to Legionella’s understanding. The perpetuation of a water-focused monitoring approach and the importance of protozoa and biofilms will then be discussed as bottom-line questions for reliable Legionella real-field surveillance. Finally, an integrated monitoring model is proposed to study and control Legionella in water systems by combining discrete and continuous information about water and biofilm. Although the successful implementation of such a model requires a broader discussion across the scientific community and practitioners, this might be a starting point to build more consistent Legionella management strategies that can effectively mitigate legionellosis risks by reinforcing a pro-active Legionella prevention philosophy.

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“…and Mycobacterium spp. are several orders of magnitude lower that what has been published in literature (Huang et al, 2021;Isaac and Sherchan, 2020;Ley et al, 2020;Liu et al, 2019) (i.e., 1-10 4 copies mL -1 ). A potential reason for this could be over-chlorination in the systems, which had been reported in the aftermath of HM (Brown et al, 2018), including in early phase of sampling as this study showed.…”

Section: Microbial Communities and Metagenomes Of Pr Samples Were Similar To Those Seen Inmentioning

confidence: 55%

Spatial-temporal targeted and non-targeted surveys to assess microbiological composition of drinking water in Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria

Sevillano

Vosloo

Cotto

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Loss of basic utilities, such as drinking water and electricity distribution, were sustained for months in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria's (HM) landfall in Puerto Rico (PR) in September 2017. The goal of this study was to assess if there was deterioration in biological quality of drinking water due to these disruptions. This study characterized the microbial composition of drinking water following HM across nine drinking water systems (DWSs) in PR and utilized an extended temporal sampling campaign to determine if changes in the drinking water microbiome were indicative of HM associated disturbance followed by recovery. In addition to monitoring water chemistry, the samples were subjected to culture independent targeted and non-targeted microbial analysis including quantitative PCR (qPCR) and genome-resolved metagenomics. The qPCR results showed that residual disinfectant was the major driver of bacterial concentrations in tap water with marked decrease in concentrations from early to late sampling timepoints. While Mycobacterium avium and Pseudomonas aeruginosa were not detected in any sampling locations and timepoints, genetic material from Leptospira and Legionella pneumophila were transiently detected in a few sampling locations. The majority of metagenome assembled genomes (MAGs) recovered from these samples were not associated with pathogens and were consistent with bacterial community members routinely detected in DWSs. Further, whole metagenome-level comparisons between drinking water samples collected in this study with samples from other full-scale DWS indicated no significant deviation from expected community membership of the drinking water microbiome. Overall, our results suggest that disruptions due to HM did not result in significant and sustained deterioration of biological quality of drinking water at our study sites.

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Drinking water microbiology in a water-efficient building: stagnation, seasonality, and physicochemical effects on opportunistic pathogen and total bacteria proliferation

Abstract: The rising trend in water conservation awareness has given rise to the use of water-efficient appliances and fixtures for residential potable water systems. This study characterizes the microbial dynamics at...

Cited by 52 publications

References 39 publications

Critical Review: Propensity of Premise Plumbing Pipe Materials to Enhance or Diminish Growth of Legionella and Other Opportunistic Pathogens

Critical Review: Propensity of Premise Plumbing Pipe Materials to Enhance or Diminish Growth of Legionella and Other Opportunistic Pathogens

Legionella and Biofilms—Integrated Surveillance to Bridge Science and Real-Field Demands

Spatial-temporal targeted and non-targeted surveys to assess microbiological composition of drinking water in Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria

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