Reconsider the burn: The transient effect of a chlorine burn on controlling opportunistic pathogens in a full-scale chloraminated engineered water system

Chiqian Zhang; Nathan Sienkiewicz; Ian Struewing; Jatin H Mistry; Helen Buse; Zhiqiang Hu; Jingrang Lu

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.172690

Reconsider the burn: The transient effect of a chlorine burn on controlling opportunistic pathogens in a full-scale chloraminated engineered water system

Sci Total Environ. 2024 Apr 24:172690. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.172690. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Chiqian Zhang¹, Nathan Sienkiewicz², Ian Struewing², Jatin H Mistry³, Helen Buse², Zhiqiang Hu⁴, Jingrang Lu⁵

Affiliations

¹ Civil Engineering Program, College of Engineering & Computer Science, Arkansas State University, AR 72467, United States.
² Office of Research and Development, United States Environmental Protection Agency, Cincinnati, OH 45268, United States.
³ United States Environmental Protection Agency, Region 6, Dallas, TX 75270, United States.
⁴ Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211, United States.
⁵ Office of Research and Development, United States Environmental Protection Agency, Cincinnati, OH 45268, United States. Electronic address: lu.jingrang@epa.gov.

PMID: 38670361
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.172690

Abstract

Nitrification is a serious water-quality issue in chloraminated engineered water systems (EWSs). Nitrification is often remediated by a chlorine burn (i.e., a free‑chlorine conversion), a short-term switch from chloramination to chlorination in EWSs. Opportunistic pathogens (OPs) are the dominant infectious agents in EWSs. However, the responses of OPs to a chlorine burn are unknown. This study for the first time assessed how a chlorine burn affected OPs in a full-scale EWS. We determined the impact of a 1.5-month chlorine burn on four dominant OPs (Legionella, Mycobacterium, Pseudomonas, and Vermamoeba vermiformis) in a representative full-scale chloraminated EWS in the United States. Legionella and Mycobacterium were the most abundant OPs. In the water main, the summed concentration of the four OPs during the chlorine burn [3.27 ± 1.58 log₁₀(GCN·L^-1); GCN: genome or gene copy number] was lower (p ≤ 0.001) than before the burn [4.83 ± 0.50 log₁₀(GCN·L^-1)]. After the burn, the summed concentration increased to 4.27 ± 0.68 log₁₀(GCN·L^-1), comparable to before the burn (p > 0.05), indicating a transient effect of the chlorine burn in the water main. At the residential sites, the summed concentrations of the four OPs were comparable (p > 0.05) at 5.50 ± 0.84, 5.27 ± 1.44, and 5.08 ± 0.71 log₁₀(GCN·L^-1) before, during, and after the chlorine burn, respectively. Therefore, the chlorine burn was less effective in suppressing OP (re)growth in the premise plumbing. The low effectiveness might be due to more significant water stagnation and disinfectant residual decay in the premise plumbing. Indeed, for the entire sampling period, the total chlorine residual concentration in the premise plumbing (1.8 mg Cl₂·L^-1) was lower than in the water main (2.4 mg Cl₂·L^-1). Consequently, for the entire sampling period, the summed concentration of the four OPs in the premise plumbing [5.26 ± 1.08 log₁₀(GCN·L^-1)] was significantly higher (p < 0.001) than in the water main [4.04 ± 1.25 log₁₀(GCN·L^-1)]. In addition, the chlorine burn substantially increased the levels of disinfection by-products (DBPs) in the water main. Altogether, a chlorine burn is transient or even ineffective in suppressing OP (re)growth but raises DBP concentrations in chloraminated EWSs. Therefore, the practice of chlorine burns to control nitrification should be optimized, reconsidered, or even replaced.

Keywords: Disinfectant residuals; Free chlorine; Legionella; Monochloramine; Mycobacterium; Nitrification.