Occurrence of coliphages in urban stormwater and their fate in stormwater management systems.
OBJECTIVE
To investigate the occurrence of coliphages in, and their removal from, urban stormwater.


RESULTS
Inflow and outflow concentrations of somatic and f-specific RNA coliphages to two stormwater treatment systems were determined on 21 occasions over a period of 5 months. Somatic coliphages were detected in 19 (90%) of the constructed wetland inlet samples, 13 (62%) of the pond inlet samples, and less frequently at the outlets of the two systems. F-specific RNA coliphages were detected at the inlets but only occasionally at the pond outlet. Somatic coliphages were found to attach preferentially to particles <5 microm in size and persisted in the sediments of the two systems.


CONCLUSIONS
Treatment systems providing conditions that are conducive to the settlement of fine particles may effectively remove sediment-bound coliphages and, therefore, possibly enteric viruses from stormwater.


CONCLUSIONS
The results will aid the design of systems for effective removal of viral contaminants from urban stormwater.
Davies
C M
CM
Water Research Laboratory, Centre for Water and Environmental Technology, University of Western Sydney, Richmond, NSW, Australia. c.davies@unsw.edu.au
Yousefi
Z
Z
Bavor
H J
HJ
D003090:Coliphages / Q000254:growth & development / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D005618:Fresh Water / Q000382:microbiology*; D011891:Rain; D014505:Urban Population; D014865:Waste Disposal, Fluid / Q000379:methods; D014876:Water Pollution / Q000517:prevention & control*; D018508:Water Purification / Q000379:methods*