Characterization of indicator bacteria in municipal raw water, drinking water, and new main water samples

Abstract

Municipal water samples were analyzed by membrane filter (MF) and presence–absence (P-A) tests for pollution indicator bacteria. In four years, 11 514 bacterial cultures were isolated from either raw water, drinking water, or new main water samples submitted to three environmental laboratories. The bacterial species occurring most often in all types of water samples were Escherichia coli (11.6–39.7%), Enterobacter aerogenes (18.1–26.3%), Aeromonas hydrophila (8.8–17.0%), Klebsiella pneumoniae (7.7–10.3%), and Citrobacter freundii (5.09–22.7%). A lactose – lauryl tryptose – tryptone broth was examined as an alternative medium to modified MacConkey broth in the presumptive portion of the P-A test. The intensity of acid and gas production in presumptive positive P-A bottles was compared with the types and frequencies of indicator bacteria shown by confirmatory tests. The results of detecting indicator bacteria following the analysis of 53 130 samples over a 2-year period were arranged by water source (well, lake, river, mixed) and water type (raw or drinking) to determine the influence of these parameters on the recovery of indicator bacteria. A further subdivision of the sample types into raw surface, raw ground, in-plant, plant discharge, reservoir, and distribution samples demonstrated the effect of water treatment practices.