Safeguarding the microbial water quality from source to tap

Favere, Jorien; Barbosa, Raquel G.; Sleutels, Tom; Verstraete, Willy; Gusseme, Bart De; Boon, Nico

doi:10.1038/s41545-021-00118-1

Cited by 43 publications

(31 citation statements)

References 78 publications

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“…Pressures on water resources and quality are further exacerbated by the growing concentration of human populations in metropolitan areas and intensification of industrial activities [5]. In such a scenario, the provision of sufficient safe water for all citizens is an increasing challenge for water production management at drinking water treatment plants (DWTP).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Monitoring Bacterial Community Dynamics in a Drinking Water Treatment Plant: An Integrative Approach Using Metabarcoding and Microbial Indicators in Large Water Volumes

Pinar-Méndez

Wangensteen

Præbel

et al. 2022

Water

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Monitoring bacterial communities in a drinking water treatment plant (DWTP) may help to understand their regular operations. Bacterial community dynamics in an advanced full-scale DWTP were analyzed by 16S rRNA metabarcoding, and microbial water quality indicators were determined at nine different stages of potabilization: river water and groundwater intake, decantation, sand filtration, ozonization, carbon filtration, reverse osmosis, mixing chamber and post-chlorination drinking water. The microbial content of large water volumes (up to 1100 L) was concentrated by hollow fiber ultrafiltration. Around 10 million reads were obtained and grouped into 10,039 amplicon sequence variants. Metabarcoding analysis showed high bacterial diversity at all treatment stages and above all in groundwater intake, followed by carbon filtration and mixing chamber samples. Shifts in bacterial communities occurred downstream of ozonization, carbon filtration, and, more drastically, chlorination. Proteobacteria and Bacteroidota predominated in river water and throughout the process, but in the final drinking water, the strong selective pressure of chlorination reduced diversity and was clearly dominated by Cyanobacteria. Significant seasonal variation in species distribution was observed in decantation and carbon filtration samples. Some amplicon sequence variants related to potentially pathogenic genera were found in the DWTP. However, they were either not detected in the final water or in very low abundance (<2%), and all EU Directive quality standards were fully met. A combination of culture and high-throughput sequencing techniques may help DWTP managers to detect shifts in microbiome, allowing for a more in-depth assessment of operational performance.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Monitoring Bacterial Community Dynamics in a Drinking Water Treatment Plant: An Integrative Approach Using Metabarcoding and Microbial Indicators in Large Water Volumes

Pinar-Méndez

Wangensteen

Præbel

et al. 2022

Water

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“…Clearly, the advanced removal of minor pollutants by systems, such as slow sand filtration, are well established (Sharma and Bhattacharya, 2017), and the additional questions about the biostability of the water produced can be handled. Engineers can characterize biostability by considering the presence of nutrients relative to the presence of a sufficient and diverse microbial community (Favere et al ., 2021).…”

Section: Effective Abilities Of Mixed Microbial Communities For Engin...mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, soils can act either as carbon source or as sink, and this relates with the activity of soil microorganisms, although knowledge on the quantitative contribution of different phylogenetic groups remains elusive (Gougoulias et al ., 2014). To achieve proper microbiome management, key generic ecological principles, such as microbial economics (Tasoff et al ., 2015), the Pareto distribution concept (Dejonghe et al ., 2001; Verstraete et al ., 2007; De Vrieze et al ., 2017), top predator involvements (Chen et al ., 2011), biostability boundary conditions (Prest et al ., 2016; Favere et al ., 2021) and reliable stochasticity (Zhou et al ., 2014; De Vrieze et al ., 2020) need to be better defined and taken into account.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Engineering microbial technologies for environmental sustainability: choices to make

Verstraete

Yanuka‐Golub²,

Driesen

et al. 2021

Microbial Biotechnology

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Microbial technologies have provided solutions to key challenges in our daily lives for over a century.In the debate about the ongoing climate change and the need for planetary sustainability, microbial ecology and microbial technologies are rarely considered. Nonetheless, they can bring forward vital solutions to decrease and even prevent long-term effects of climate change. The key to the success of microbial technologies is an effective, target-oriented microbiome management. Here, we highlight how microbial technologies can play a key role in both natural, i.e. soils and aquatic ecosystems, and seminatural or even entirely human-made, engineered ecosystems, e.g. (waste) water treatment and bodily systems. First, we set forward fundamental guidelines for effective soil microbial resource management, especially with respect to nutrient loss and greenhouse gas abatement. Next, we focus on closing the water circle, integrating resource recovery. We also address the essential interaction of the human and animal host with their respective microbiomes. Finally, we set forward some key future potentials, such as microbial protein and the need to overcome microphobia for microbial products and services. Overall, we conclude that by relying on the wisdom of the past, we can tackle the challenges of our current era through microbial technologies.

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“…It is often studied measuring parameters such as dissolved organic carbon (DOC), assimilable organic carbon (AOC), heterotrophic plate counts (HPC) and total cell concentration (Chen et al, 2018;Hammes et al, 2010;Kooij, 1992b). Flow cytometry is a fast and reliable tool that can be used for online monitoring of both total and intact cells, and can detect changes in the microbial fingerprint (Favere et al, 2021).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pilot-scale drinking water distribution system to study water quality changes during transport

Gusseme

García‐Timermans

Malfroot

et al. 2022

Preprint

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Drinking water (DW) can undergo quality changes during transport through the distribution network. Physical-chemical and/or microbial changes can lead to the development of taste and odor events, and/or regrowth of pathogens. To understand the root causes and study in depth how these changes arise, the use of pilot plants that emulate drinking water distribution networks is essential. Here we describe the design and functionality of a new pilot plant for this purpose. First, we describe the choice of piping material, sensors and instrumentation. Secondly, we show evidence of how the three independent loops (100 m each) of the pilot behave identically when tested for physical-chemical and microbial changes over time. This pilot plant thus allows to test three conditions simultaneously, and to monitor 1) the formation of taste and odor compounds, 2) the regrowth of microorganisms, and 3) changes in dissolved organic carbon composition. Additionally, online measurements of both physical and biological parameters enable real-time follow-up of the pilot, and inner pipe biofilm sampling is possible using coupons. To reproduce different network conditions, temperature, flow rate and pressure are modulable. The temperature control feature presents an opportunity for studying the effect of climate change on drinking water quality, and its modularity and flexibility allows to study the impact of different piping material and source waters on DW quality changes in the distribution network.

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Safeguarding the microbial water quality from source to tap

Cited by 43 publications

References 78 publications

Monitoring Bacterial Community Dynamics in a Drinking Water Treatment Plant: An Integrative Approach Using Metabarcoding and Microbial Indicators in Large Water Volumes

Monitoring Bacterial Community Dynamics in a Drinking Water Treatment Plant: An Integrative Approach Using Metabarcoding and Microbial Indicators in Large Water Volumes

Engineering microbial technologies for environmental sustainability: choices to make

Pilot-scale drinking water distribution system to study water quality changes during transport

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