Samendra P. Sherchan1, 2, Charles P. Gerba 1, and Ian L. Pepper2
1Department of Soil, Water, and Environmental Science, 2Environmental Research Laboratory,
University of Arizona
samendrasherchan@email.arizona.edu
Water utility treatment failure, as well as intentional or accidental water intrusions can introduce biological and/or chemical contaminants into public drinking water distribution systems. To protect public health, recently developed real-time water quality sensors can be implemented to detect such contamination. The overall objective of this study was to evaluate the potential for real-time monitoring of biological contaminants using water quality sensors including: the HACH Guardian Blue Monitoring Platform; the JMAR BioSentry unit; the Instant BioScan unit and the S::CAN spectro::lyser technology.
The selected sensors can detect microbial water quality changes and thus can be utilized as part of a contaminant warning system for monitoring intrusion events in water distribution systems.