Tracing Water Movement by Means of Escherichia Coli Bacteriophages

摘要

The author has developed a method which uses Escherichia coli bacteriophages as tracers of water movements. The method has been tested in rivers, ground waters, municipal waste water treatment plants and a lake polluted by pulp and paper mill effluents. The phage tracer was found to suit rivers, and on certain conditions, the other water bodies referred to above. The method has several advantages: (1) It is harmless to the environment. (2) Great dilution ratio 10 to the minus 11th power - 10 to the minus 13th power equals that of radioactive tracers and neutron activation analysis tracers, and considerably exceeds that of fluorescent dyes. (3) Several water fractions can be marked simultaneously. (4) The cost is relatively low. The most serious disadvantage is the delay in obtaining the results; water samples have to be analyzed in the laboratory and the result cannot be enumerated until 4 to 6 hours after plating the samples.