Collaborative Research: Comprehensive Microbiological Water Quality and Risk Assessment Tools for Timely Water Management

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The presence of pathogens in water bodies used by the public for drinking water, recreation, and other uses has great potential to cause human diseases. To maintain water quality and assure the safety of the public, it is necessary to rapidly monitor the presence of pathogens and analyze their potential risks. However, current approaches to quantify pathogens are typically focused on only one type of pathogen and cannot reliably provide quantitative risk information in a timely manner. The proposed research consists of a novel approach to rapidly assess health risks caused by the presence of a wide variety of pathogens determined from easy to measure water quality parameters. If successful, this research can lead to a same day assessment of the potential risks associated with contaminated water to protect the health of the public. Additional benefits to society will result from educating high school students, the public, and water quality professionals through outreach and training, thus increasing the understanding of water quality and disease. The goal of this research is to establish rapid microbiological water quality and risk assessment tools for water management. The central hypothesis is that the concentration of a pathogen can be expressed as a function of fecal indicator (FI), microbial source tracking (MST) markers, and environmental parameters. Pathogen concentrations will be used to assess potential human health risks by quantitative microbial risk assessment (QMRA). The specific objectives of this research are to (1) simultaneously quantify major waterborne pathogens (bacterial, viral, and protozoan pathogens) as well as FI and MST markers in water samples, (2) create and validate models to predict pathogen concentrations from FI and MST marker data, and (3) establish a QMRA workflow targeting multiple pathogens. While there are numerous models to predict FI from environmental parameters, only limited attempts have been made to predict concentrations of pathogens due to the lack of comprehensive data sets. This research will take advantage of the high-throughput quantitative PCR technology to collect large data sets of pathogens, FI, and MST marker concentrations. As a result of this research, utilities, public health professionals, water quality managers, and other stakeholders will be able to rapidly assess water quality and prevent disease outbreaks without specialized skills and costly equipment. To increase broader impacts, this project proposes a comprehensive plan that will (1) involve undergraduate and high school students in environmental research, (2) conduct outreach activities at local farmer’s markets and at the Minnesota State Fair, and (3) organize a qPCR and QMRA workshop for managers of local wastewater treatment plants and recreational beaches.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.