Waste
Water Facilities are required to test the final effluent
in order to be in compliance with their NPDES permit allowing
them to discharge the effluent into a specific body of water.
US EPA on March 26th, 2007 promulgated additional indicators,
E.coli and enterococci for testing wastewater prior to discharge
and became effective on April 26th, 2007. Included in this
regulation were the approval of 2 MF methods and Colilert® for
E.coli and 1 MF method and Enterolert™ for
enterococci. Prior to EPA promulgation twelve states allowed
the use of Colilert® and Colilert®-18 for the detection
of E.coli for final waste water effluent effluent. Colilert,
Colilert-18 and Enterolert™ and Quanti-Tray® are
a proven method and are an important analytical tool for the
testing of these parameters and are also included in this proposal.
Colilert
is based on Defined Substrate Technology® and
detects coliforms and E.coli simultaneously using two nutrient
indicators ONPG and MUG, which will turn yellow for the presence
of coliforms and yellow and fluorescence for the presence of
E.coli. With Enterolert, a blue fluorescence will be observed
for the presence of enterococci. Colilert or Enterolert with
the Quanti-Tray yields quantitative results within 18-24 hours
and is a fast, easy and reliable proven procedure.
The
methods used for waste water testing will be reviewed and
studies will be presented to support DST as an analytical
tool for the detection of these parameters in wastewaters. |
