Think Twice Before You Consume Your Tap and Environmental Water!!!!

by Luis Duron

          Sewer treatment plants (STPs) are known to use chlorine, UV irradiation, and ozonation to effectively remove and disinfect our public and environmental waters from pathogenic microorganisms. A recent study done in South East Queenland, Australia has found different kind of pathogenic E. coli strains from water sample collected in lakes, rivers, lagoons effluent by STPs and in STPs. Their results illustrates all the water samples collected from environmental waters effluent by STPs had 56% identical E. coli strains to those found in STPs waters. Of these, 95% carried virulence genes (VGs) related to intestinal pathogenic E. coli. The reality that STPs don’t completely remove and disinfect pathogenic microorganisms from our environmental and public waters present a significant public health risk. 

       Figure from Anastasi et al. 2012 illustrates the identical pathogenic E. coli strains found on both STPs and                            environmental waters.


Anastasi EM, Matthews B, Stratton HM, Katauli M. (2012) Pathogenic E. coli Found in Sewage Treatment Plants and Environmental Waters. Applied & Environmental Microbiology. 78:5536-554.