GOOD BUGS, BAD BUGS

Is your drinking water "bugging" you? Two recent articles in the American Chemical Society journal "Environmental Science & Technology" reportedly offer contrasting views of bacteria that may be found in drinking water.

According to one report, well water which is not disinfected may be the cause of up to 1.1 million cases per year of acute gastrointestinal illness--nausea, diarrhea, etc. Such effects may increase as water system infrastructure ages beyond its useful life and deficiencies arise. The study claims that more than 100 million people in the United States receive well water which is not disinfected or not adequately disinfected to control disease-causing nasties. ("Risk of Viral Acute Gastrointestinal Illness from Nondisinfected Drinking Water Distribution Systems", September 12, 2012).

However, the other article suggests that water systems may be able to "manipulate" infrastructure to enable finished water to contain beneficial bacteria. The study explained that ordinarily water utilities control bacteria by using filters to eliminate nutrients for bacteria and by applying chlorine and other disinfection methods to kill them. Indeed, some jurisdictions require a chlorine residual through out the distribution system. The report suggests that the pH of water can determine which bacteria continue in the treatment process, and by changes to the pH and how filters are cleaned, beneficial bacteria could remain in water received by customers. ("Beneficial Community Structure in the Drinking Water Microbiome Is Governed by Filtration Processes", August 8, 2012).

The good bacteria/bad bacteria situation may be tempered by the federal Safe Drinking Water Act and U.S.EPA regulations. There are national primary drinking water standards for control of microorganisms in water with which all public water systems must comply. Generally, such systems are those serving 15 service connections or which regularly serve 25 persons. Under EPA's 2010 proposed revisions to its total coliform rule, public water systems subject to microbial contamination will have to perform an assessment of their system and correct any deficiency in their treatment or distribution facilities.

As a grade school kid, I remember sitting at the kitchen table looking at a drop of tap water through my A.C. Gilbert microscope. I do not know if I saw good bugs, or bad bugs, or just a dirty slide previously used for the grasshopper I had dissected. Frankly, I'm not sure I cared to know, anyway.