Recovery of Sanitary-Indicator Bacteria from Streams Containing Acid Mine Water,

摘要

Quantitative and qualitative bacteriological studies were conducted on several streams simultaneously affected by acid-mine water and organic-waste pollution. Conventional direct membrane filtration techniques were found to be inadequate to recover sublethally injured coliforms from such aquatic environments when compared to recovery obtained by multiple-tube fermentation techniques. Substantially enhanced recovery of sublethally injured coliforms resulted upon the inclusion of an enrichment step when using the membrane filtration procedure. Qualitatively,several members of the Enterobacteriaceae were identified,including Escherichia coli,Enterobacter aerogenes,Enterobacter cloacae,Citrobacter freundii,Citrobacter intermedius,Klebsiella ozaenae,and Klebsiella pneumoniae. Differential qualitative distribution of the coliform species as a function of sampling location revealed some changes in population make-up,suggesting a differential inhibitory effect of acid-mine water on the respective members of the Enterobacteriaceae. Quantitative detection of fecal streptococci from the streams affected by acid-mine water was accomplished with relative ease,indicating that consideration should be given to employing this group as reliable indicators of bacteriological quality of aquatic environments affected by acid-mine drainage. Qualitatively,all members of the fecal streptococcal group were isolated from the streams affected by acid-mine water,with the exception of Streptococcus bovis and Streptococcus equinis. 'Total'plate counts,performed on several water samples during the summer months,reflected negligible differences in quantitative detection of bacteria as a function of three different incubation temperatures (10, 20,and 35C).