Quality Indicators for Water Reuse in Lisbon Real-Time qPCR Detection of Enteric Viruses and Bacteroides spp.

Teixeira, Pedro; Costa, Silvia; Brown, Bárbara; Valério, Elisabete

http://hdl.handle.net/10400.18/6754

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Demand for water reuse is increasing worldwide, whether by necessity in developing countries or by environmental objectives in developed countries. An efficient and sustainable hydric resources management allows non-potable uses for treated wastewater such as irrigation, industrial processes, firefighting, recreational or municipal services. Besides the existence of heavy metals, chemicals, hormones and endocrine disruptors in treated wastewater, it is still necessary to deal with the potential presence of resistant pathogens, many of which are not tested or included in current standards or legislation designed for water quality assessment. These microorganisms include virus, bacteria, protozoa and helminths, responsible for a significant number of potentially dangerous pathologies. Current wastewater treatment processes may not completely remove enteric viruses, even with adequate residual disinfectant concentrations. UV technology has been used regarding water reuse, but the apparent ability for some microorganism to repair DNA/RNA damage allows the reactivation of their capability for reproduction and infection. Hence, one of the major public health issues focuses on the possibility for highly infective pathogen transmission trough treated wastewater - a regulation revision is therefore of the utmost importance. In this work, wastewater samples were collected at a WWTP in the Lisbon district, at 3 different stages – untreated affluent, effluent with secondary treatment and effluent with tertiary treatment. A procedure based on the ISO/TS 15216-2:2013 for quantitative detection of Hepatitis A and Norovirus I (NovI) and II (NovII) in water samples was established. Common microbiological and some physical and chemical indicators were also performed for comparison. Enteric virus (NovI/NovII/HepA) were detected in the 3 different WWTP stages samples: untreated wastewater (100/100/20%); secondary treated effluent (47/73/13%) and tertiary treated effluent (33/20/7%). These results indicate that risks to public health still remain, although Fecal Indicator Bacteria indicators were close to zero.