Over the past 7 years, the Massachusetts Water Resource Authority (MWRA) has been
monitoring their receiving waters for indicator bacteria, coliphages and anthropogenic viruses to
evaluate the impact of Boston's Deer Island Sewage Treatment Plant discharge. Coliphages,
enteric viruses, and indicator bacteria were originally assayed using traditional single agar
overlay assay (SAL), cell culture MPN method, and membrane filtration techniques respectively.
However, by using recent advances in viral detection, a two step enrichment procedure proposed
for the Groundwater Rule phage detection, and the use of an integrated cell culture-nested
polymerase chain reaction (ICC-nPCR) for the detection of enteric viruses (poliovirus, coxsackie
virus, echovirus, rotavirus, adenovirus 40/41 and astrovirus), has permitted increased sensitivity
and specificity for detection of both coliphages and enteric viruses. In the last 2 years, data has
been collected on the presence of coliphages and enteric viruses using only these new techniques
and the original samples collected 3 years prior were reanalyzed by ICC-nPCR. In the original
analysis, 8.20 percent of the samples were positive for male-specific phage and 9.84 percent were
positive for somatic phage. When samples taken from these same areas were evaluated by the
enrichment procedure, 58 percent were positive for male specific phage and 55 percent were
positive for somatic phage. Twenty three percent of the original samples were positive for virus
by the MPN method. Reanalysis of these samples by ICC-nPCR demonstrated that 45.9 percent
of the samples were positive for at least one virus. Several samples originally negative by the
MPN method now demonstrated the presence of one or more viruses and several samples that
were originally positive were negative when reanalyzed by ICC-nPCR. Preliminary comparative
results demonstrate that effective and efficient monitoring of anthropogenic contamination can be
achieved using these more sensitive techniques. Correlations between the presence of coliphages,
enteric viruses and indicator bacteria were based on proximity to the treatment plant and seasonal
variations. Levels of male specific
coliphages and enteric viruses were highest in the fall, whereas somatic coliphages were highest
in the spring and winter. Proximity related prevalence of coliphages was highest at the shore sites
and enteric viruses at the sites closest to the diffuser. Includes 9 references, figures.
| Edition : | Vol. - No. |
| File Size : | 1
file
, 280 KB |
| Note : | This product is unavailable in Ukraine, Russia, Belarus |
| Number of Pages : | 11 |
| Published : | 11/01/2002 |
