Comparison of UV, Peracetic Acid and Sodium Hypochlorite Treatment in the Disinfection of Urban Wastewater

Abstract

One source of water contamination is the release of wastewater that has not undergone efficient treatment. The aim of this study was to evaluate the reduction obtained with sodium hypochlorite (NaClO), UV and peracetic acid disinfection treatment of Salmonella spp., pathogenic Campylobacter, STEC and bacterial indicators in three full-scale municipal wastewater plants. A general reduction in Salmonella was observed after disinfection, but these bacteria were detected in one UV-treated sample (culture method) and in 33%, 50% and 17% of samples collected after NaClO, UV and PAA disinfection treatments, respectively (PCR method). A better reduction was also observed under NaClO disinfection for the microbial indicators. Independent of the disinfection treatment, E. coli O157:H7 was not detected in the disinfected samples, whereas some samples treated with UV and PAA showed the presence of the stx1 gene. No reduction in the presence of stx2 genes was verified for any of the disinfection treatments. Campylobacter was not detected in any of the analysed samples. The overall results highlight a better reduction in microbiological parameters with a NaClO disinfection treatment in a full-scale municipal wastewater plant compared with UV and PAA. However, the results indicate that a complete and specific monitoring program is necessary to prevent a possible risk to public health.

Impact of wastewater treatment plants on microbiological contamination for evaluating the risks of wastewater reuse

“…livestock production, food industries and slaughterhouses) [35], the absence of these bacteria could be related to a low circulation of these pathogens in the local population. The absence of STEC and pathogenic Campylobacter (jejuni and coli) in wastewater samples was also reported in other studies [6,32,36].…”

“…These results highlight a greater sensitivity of the molecular method over the culture method. This is probably related to the difficulty of isolating Salmonella on culture media due to the presence of interfering microflora, as previously reported [32] or to the use of an enrichment step for the molecular method that can aid the recovery of injured, stressed or lag-phase bacterial cells [33]. Moreover, Salmonella spp.…”