Full Description

A one-year study was undertaken on groundwater used as source of drinking water in the Province of Quebec. Twelve municipal wells were sampled monthly during a one-year period for a total of 161 samples. Based on historical data the 12 sites had been categorized in three groups: group "A" are wells that had no known contamination of their groundwater, group "B" are wells with groundwater sporadically contaminated by total coliforms and group "C" includes wells with historical and continuous contamination by total coliforms and/or fecal coliforms. Bacterial indicators (total coliform, E.coli, enteroccoci), viral indicators (somatic and male-specificcoliphages) [December 2003 to December 2004] and total cultivable human enteric viruses [March to December of 2004] were analyzed at every sampling site. Results show that the sites in the C group all showed indication of contamination: 4/4 sites had total coliforms and enterococci occurrence and samples from 3/4 sites contained human enteric viruses. As reported by others, two samples contained human enteric viruses in the absence of fecal pollution indicators (E. coli, enterococci or coliphages), thus revealing the limitedvalue of analyzing small volumes for these microorganisms to predict the presence of human enteric viruses in groundwater. The ongoing project has allowed us to begin to characterize the microbiological and virological quality of groundwater used as municipal drinking water sources in Quebec. The results confirm that some groundwater sources are well protected while the presence of bacteria and viruses in others suggest sources of fecal contamination and the need for adequate treatment. Includes 15 references, tables.

Product Details

Edition: Vol. - No. Published: 11/01/2005 Number of Pages: 9File Size: 1 file , 820 KB