Monitoring playes an important role in detecting fecal contamination in source waters. People drinking water from small public groundwater systems maybe at higher risk for exposure to bacterial and viral contaimination than people drinking water from larger public systems because monitoring requirements for small systems may be too infrequent to detect problems. In addition, total coliform (the current indicator) may not be the best indicator of viral contamination. Viral contaminants may be more of a threat to ground water than bacterial or protozoan contaminants for two reasons. First, because of virus' small size, they can be transported farther in ground water than bacteria. Second, viruses are thought to be more persistent in the environment.
OBJECTIVE
The study will perform an exploratory survey of small public groundwater
supplies for the presence of human enteric viruses and indicator organisms.
Specific objectives are to determine if:
(1) viruses are found in small groundwater public-supply systems
(2) if they are found at a higher frequency than in other systems
(3) if they are found in systems that would otherwise be classified as "low risk"
(4) determine if indicators of fecal contamination are adequate predictors of the presence of human pathogenic viruses.
Five sets of samples will be collected from each of 30 wells in SE Michigan. Wells will be sampled for field parameters, bacterial indicator organisms (total coliform, E. coli, and enterococci) and viral indicators, somatic coliphage and f-specific coliphage. Data will be analyzed and interpreted to compute frequency of detection and interrelationships between bacteria and viruses.
Project Chief: Denis Healy