Hi all…The US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) released a toolkit in June of this year to “provide an easy-to-understand interpretation of ASHRAE Standard 188 to help building owners and managers evaluate the water system and devices in their building(s) to see if they need a (Legionella growth and spread) program, and then develop an [...]
Hi all…despite the fact that it’s almost November, a cyanobacterial bloom generating microcystin recently occurred in a small lake near Waterloo. It is fitting then that a perspective “on the rise of toxic cyanobacteria” published earlier this year in the Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences is predicting cyanobacterial blooms are most likely to increase [...]
Hi all…I’ve come across another study which most drinking water/public health providers will never see but it contains an extremely important finding. Previous watershed surveys have revealed that E. coli O157/E. coli O157:H7 are detected relatively infrequently (less than 5% of samples). While it is not typically present it would nonetheless be expected that disease outbreaks would [...]
Hi all…the Water Research Foundation and AWWA have just released a report entitled “Managing Cyanotoxins in Drinking Water-A Technical Guidance Manual for Drinking Water Professionals.” The authors state that the this report “is intended for users working for or with water utilities that have already been determined to be at risk of having cyanobacteria and [...]
Hi all…with the 2016 cyanobacteria season now occurring I suspect that many of you have wondered what happens to cyanobacteria when they are trapped/settled out in drinking water treatment plants/reservoirs. An article has recently been published reporting that unfortunately “it was shown that cyanobacteria can proliferate in the conditions manifest in a sludge treatment lagoon, [...]
Hi all…hidden within this article is some information on the potential fate of 3 intentionally introduced toxins in distribution systems. The main focus of the study is an assessment of how various pathogens/toxins may attach to different pipe materials. The biocidal ability of copper in particular is confirmed and there is some good information on [...]
Hi all…as this year’s cyanotoxin season draws near, a review article entitled “Toxic cyanobacteria and drinking water: Impacts, detection, and treatment” has just appeared in print. The authors state “this paper synthesizes and updates a number of previous review articles on various aspects of this multi-barrier approach in order to provide a holistic resource for [...]
Hi all...I've been made aware of an article describing a norovirus outbreak in northeastern Spain in April which made in excess of 4,000 Barcelona and Tarragona consumers ill. The water was distributed to hundreds of companies with water dispensers used by employees. Catalan health authorities claim that "This is the first time in recorded history that [...]
Hi all…information on fungi in drinking water distribution systems continues to be scarce. As far as I am aware, there are no guidelines or regulations anywhere and it remains unclear as to whether or not their presence is necessarily indicative of a risk to human health. In a recent study (below) the authors report that [...]
Hi all…another article on the presence of pathogens in wastewater has been published. What makes this one a bit different is they surveyed for Enterocytozoon bieneusi which is one of a group of obligate intracellular parasitic fungi known as microsporidia. Instead of producing environmentally resistant oocysts or cysts like Cryptosporidium and Giardia they produce spores in the [...]