Water Quality Analysis via Indicator Organisms
Source: Laboratories of Dr. Ian Pepper and Dr. Charles Gerba -The University of Arizona
Demonstrating Author: Luisa Ikner
Water quality analysis monitors anthropogenic influences such as pollutants, nutrients, pathogens, and any other constituent that can impact the water’s integrity as a resource. Fecal contamination contributes microbial pathogens that threaten plant, animal, and human health with disease or illness. Increasing water demands and strict quality standards require that water being supplied for human or environmental resources be monitored for low pathogen levels. However, monitoring each pathogen associated with fecal pollution is not feasible, as laboratory techniques involve extensive labor, time, and costs. Therefore, detection for indicator organisms provides a simple, rapid, and cost effective technique to monitor pathogens associated with unsanitary conditions.
1. Colilert Presence – Absence (P – A) Test
- Open the 100 mL plastic Colilert bottle. The bottle includes a small amount of powdered reagent that is necessary for the proper reactions, do not discard this powder.
- Add 100 mL water sample into Colilert bottle.
- Open the pillow tube containing the nutrient substrate and pour the contents into the water sample inside the Colilert bottle.
- Cap and seal the Colilert bottle. Shake the bottle vigorously, repeatedly inverting the
Indicator organisms are employed to rapidly and inexpensively determine environmental contamination. Colilert assays are utilized to analyze water quality for drinking, recreational, and wastewater sources. Water quality must meet legal standards set by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and state regulatory departments in order to be accepted as a resource for human and/or environmental consumption.
Colilert assays are also strategically used as mass balance markers within environmenta
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