title: [On coliform status of river water (author's transl)].
abstract: The present study was prompted by the finding that the average quotients from the fecal coliforms/total coliforms ratio as a function of the various river sections partly show considerable differences. In order to determine with greater clarity the relationship between these quotients and the water specific factors, we investigated the E. coli/coliform ratio of two sections of a slow-flowing river, both being polluted by identical municipal waste waters but differing in length. For the 24 km long section of the Overwarnow river a mean quotient of 0.21 was obtained, whereas the short section of the Unterwarnow river accounted for a quotient of 0.41, which means that E. coli are influenced by the water-specific effects to a greater extent than the remaining coliform bacteria. The substantiated correlation between the two bacterial parameters makes such quotients appear as magnitudes being associated with the self-cleaning capacity of running river water. Particularly low average quotients would in consequence signal a pollution likely to be caused by toxic waste water. Among the biochemical coliform bacterial verified in the two Warnow river sections, strikingly resistant variants were found which indicate municipal or fecal pollution even when E. coli cannot be identified under special water-ecological conditions. Hence the restriction to the E. coli count as a reliable parameters for fecal pollution may lead to a wrong assessment of the hygienic river water quality.
mesh_terms: D001431:Bacteriological Techniques; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000254:growth & development*; D005618:Fresh Water / Q000032:analysis*; D005860:Germany, West; D013696:Temperature; D014867:Water / Q000032:analysis*; D014871:Water Microbiology
chemical_list: D014867:Water
vernacular_title: Zum Koliformenstatus eines Fliessgewässers.