Characterization of the relative importance of human- and infrastructure-associated bacteria in grey water: a case study

Evaluating endogenous viral targets as potential treatment monitoring surrogates for onsite non-potable water reuse

Onsite non-potable water reuse systems (ONWS) are decentralized systems that treat and repurpose locally collected waters (e.g. greywater or combined wastewater) for uses such as irrigation and flushing toilets. To ensure that treatment is meeting risk benchmarks, it is necessary to monitor the efficacy of pathogen removal. However, accurate assessment of pathogen reduction is hampered by their sporadic and low occurrence rates in source waters and concentrations in treated water that are generally below measurement detection limits. An alternative metric for evaluation of onsite water treatment is log reduction of a more abundant organism that can serve as a surrogate for the pathogen removal. Viruses endogenous to the decentralized system could serve as monitoring surrogates to verify that treatment meets the relevant viral log reduction targets. This study assesses eight candidate PCR targets representing potential monitoring surrogates from different viral classes to determine whether they could be used to verify the efficacy of treatment in onsite non-potable water reuse systems. Candidates tested include markers for Carjivirus (formerly CrAssphage), Pepper Mild Mottle Virus (PMMoV), Microviridae, and T4 Coliphage. We quantified these targets in untreated influent wastewater at three onsite non-potable water reuse systems, two that use greywater and one that uses combined wastewater. We also confirmed, using amplicon sequencing, that the widely used Carjivirus and PMMoV primers correctly target their respective regions of interest, and found sequence diversity within the amplicons including in the probe binding region. Ultimately, we found that the surrogates assessed are not abundant enough for end uses with higher exposure use and concomitant greater removal requirements (e.g., indoor non-potable uses), but may be effective for end uses where exposure risk is lower (e.g., irrigation).

Enteric pathogen reduction targets for onsite non-potable water systems: A critical evaluation

Onsite non-potable water systems (ONWS) collect and treat local source waters for non-potable end uses such as toilet flushing and irrigation. Quantitative microbial risk assessment (QMRA) has been used to set pathogen log10-reduction targets (LRTs) for ONWS to achieve the risk benchmark of 10-4 infections per person per year (ppy) in a series of two efforts completed in 2017 and 2021. In this work, we compare and synthesize the ONWS LRT efforts to inform the selection of pathogen LRTs. For onsite wastewater, greywater, and stormwater, LRTs for human enteric viruses and parasitic protozoa were within 1.5-log10 units between 2017 and 2021 efforts, despite differences in approaches used to characterize pathogens in these waters. For onsite wastewater and greywater, the 2017 effort used an epidemiology-based model to simulate pathogen concentrations contributed exclusively from onsite waste and selected Norovirus as the viral reference pathogen; the 2021 effort used municipal wastewater pathogen data and cultivable adenoviruses as the reference viral pathogen. Across source waters, the greatest differences occurred for viruses in stormwater, given the newly available municipal wastewater characterizations used for modeling sewage contributions in 2021 and the different selection of reference pathogens (Norovirus vs. adenoviruses). The roof runoff LRTs support the need for protozoa treatment, but these remain difficult to characterize due to the pathogen variability in roof runoff across space and time. The comparison highlights adaptability of the risk-based approach, allowing for updated LRTs as site specific or improved information becomes available. Future research efforts should focus on data collection of onsite water sources.

Human- and infrastructure-associated bacteria in greywater

Greywater, the wastewater from sinks, showers and laundry, is an understudied environment for bacterial communities. Most greywater studies focus on quantifying pathogens, often via proxies used in other wastewater, like faecal indicator bacteria; there is a need to identify more greywater-appropriate surrogates, like Staphylococcus sp. Sequencing-based studies have revealed distinct communities in different types of greywater as well as in different parts of greywater infrastructure, including biofilms on pipes, holding tanks and filtration systems. The use of metagenomic sequencing provides high resolution on both the taxa and genes present, which may be of interest in cases like identifying pathogens and surrogates relevant to different matrices, monitoring antibiotic resistance genes and understanding metabolic processes occurring in the system. Here, we review what is known about bacterial communities in different types of greywater and its infrastructure. We suggest that wider adoption of environmental sequencing in greywater research is important because it can describe the entire bacterial community along with its metabolic capabilities, including pathways for removal of nutrients and organic materials. We briefly describe a metagenomic dataset comparing different types of greywater samples in a college dormitory building to highlight the type of questions these methods can address. Metagenomic sequencing can help further the understanding of greywater treatment for reuse because it allows for identification of new pathogens or genes of concern.

Household Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene Practices Impact Pathogen Exposure in Remote, Rural, Unpiped Communities

Household water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) practices in remote, rural, and unpiped communities are likely to impact exposure to pathogens beyond the fecal-oral transmission routes that are typically prioritized in WASH interventions. We studied 43 homes in two remote, rural, unpiped communities in Alaska to evaluate seasonal water haul, water sources, water quality, and water reuse, as well as greywater and human waste disposal over 1 year. Hauled quantities of water reportedly ranged from 3.0 to 5.4 gallons per capita per day (gpcd) depending on the community and season. Natural, untreated water sources contributed 0.5-1.1 gpcd to household water availability. Reported quantities of water hauled were significantly correlated with total water storage capacity in the home. Total coliforms were detected in 30-60% of stored household water samples from treated and untreated sources, and total coliform counts were significantly higher in specific sources and during specific seasons. Exposure to pathogens during periods of low water access, from untreated water reuse, from greywater disposal and from human waste disposal are important pathways of disease transmission in these remote, rural, unpiped communities. We discuss intermediate steps that can be taken at the household and community levels to interrupt exposure pathways before piped infrastructure is installed. This model of examining specific household practices to determine transmission routes can be applied to other remote communities or unique conditions to aid in the recommendation of targeted WASH interventions.

Sorption, coagulation, and biodegradation for graywater treatment

Population growth and climate change are exacerbating water scarcity. Graywater recycling could reduce water demand but it is not commonly practiced because of high treatment costs. Biochar, an emerging low-cost alternative sorbent with potential environmental benefits for graywater treatment, was compared to activated carbon (AC) for removing dissolved organic carbon (DOC) from graywater. The impact of pretreatments (coagulation, biodegradation) were also evaluated. Among five biochars tested, a wood-based biochar was the most effective for graywater treatment, but AC removed more DOC. Sorption resulted in a greater percent removal of ultraviolet (UV) absorbance than DOC or free chlorine demand. Graywater regulations could not be met by sorption alone but could be met with pretreatment before sorption. After biodegradation, irrigation and toilet flushing treatment targets could be achieved with AC doses less than 0.7 g/L, while a biochar dose of about 1 g/L was needed to achieve the irrigation treatment targets. For DOC removal, alum coagulation at a dose of 30 mg/L was a less effective pretreatment than biodegradation. Pretreatment and sorption to decrease turbidity and increase UV transmittance could be effective for the potential use of UV disinfection, thus creating an effective graywater non-potable reuse approach.

Quantitative microbial risk assessment of Greywater on-site reuse

Recycle domestic greywater for on-site non-potable uses can lessen the demand on potable water and the burden on wastewater treatment plants. However, lack of studies to assess health risk associated with such practices has hindered their popularity. A Quantitative Microbial Risk Assessment was conducted to estimate the public health risks for two greywater reuse scenarios: toilet flushing and food-crop irrigation. Household greywater quality from three sources (bathroom, laundry and kitchen) was analyzed. Mathematical exposure rates of different scenarios were established based on human behavior using Monte-Carlo simulation. The results showed that, greywater from all three household sources could be safely used for toilet flushing after a simple treatment of microfiltration. The median range of annual infection risk was 8.8 × 10-15-8.3 × 10-11 per-person-per-year (pppy); and the median range of disease burden was 7.6 × 10-19-7.3 × 10-15 disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) pppy. In food-crop irrigation scenario, the annual infection risks and disease burdens of treated greywater from bathroom and laundry (2.8 × 10-8, 4.9 × 10-8 pppy; 2.3 × 10-12-4.2 × 10-12 DALYs pppy) were within the acceptable levels of U.S. EPA annual infection risk (≤10-4 pppy) and WHO disease burden (≤10-6 DALYs pppy) benchmarks, while kitchen greywater was not suitable for food-crop irrigation (4.9 × 10-6 pppy; 4.3 × 10-10 DALYs pppy) based on these benchmarks. The model uncertainties were discussed, which suggests that a more accurate risk estimation requires improvements on data collection and model refinement.

Potential microbial hazards from graywater reuse and associated matrices: A review

Millions of decentralized graywater-reuse systems are operating worldwide. This water is directly accessible to household inhabitants, raising environmental and public health concerns. Graywater may contain a variety of harmful organisms, the types and numbers of which vary with source-type, storage time, and background levels of infection in the community source. In this review, we find that most studies indicate high amounts of microbial pathogens in raw graywater and therefore treatment and disinfection are recommended to lower possible health risks. Where these recommendations have been followed, epidemiological and quantitative microbial risk-assessment studies have found negligible health risks of bacterial pathogens in treated graywater. Chlorine is currently suggested as the most cost-effective disinfection agent for inactivating graywater bacterial pathogens and preventing regrowth. Various studies demonstrate that the introduction and diversity of pathogenic bacteria in the soil via irrigation can be affected by several factors, but treated graywater may not be a major contributor of bacterial contamination or antibiotic resistance. However, an accurate assessment of the infectious capabilities, exposure pathways, and resistance of specific pathogens, particularly viruses and antibiotic-resistant bacteria found in treated graywater after disinfection, as well as in the graywater piping, irrigated soils, plants, and associated aerosols is largely lacking in the literature. In addition, research shows that fecal bacterial indicators might not reliably indicate the presence or quantities of pathogens in graywater and thus, the indicator standard for graywater contamination should be revised.