The Impact of Storms on Legionella pneumophila in Cooling Tower Water, Implications for Human Health

Brigmon, Robin L.; Turick, Charles E.; Knox, Anna S.; Burckhalter, Courtney E.

doi:10.3389/fmicb.2020.543589

The Impact of Storms on Legionella pneumophila in Cooling Tower Water, Implications for Human Health

Journal Article · Wed Dec 09 23:00:00 EST 2020 · Frontiers in Microbiology

DOI:https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2020.543589· OSTI ID:1766464

Brigmon, Robin L. ^[1]; Turick, Charles E. ^[1]; Knox, Anna S. ^[1]; Burckhalter, Courtney E. ^[1]

Savannah River Site (SRS), Aiken, SC (United States). Savannah River National Lab. (SRNL)

At the U.S. Department of Energy’s Savannah River Site (SRS) in Aiken, SC, cooling tower water is routinely monitored for Legionella pneumophila concentrations using a direct fluorescent antibody (DFA) technique. Historically, 25–30 operating SRS cooling towers have varying concentrations of Legionella in all seasons of the year, with patterns that are unpredictable. Legionellosis, or Legionnaires’ disease (LD), is a pneumonia caused by Legionella bacteria that thrive both in man-made water distribution systems and natural surface waters including lakes, streams, and wet soil. Legionnaires’ disease is typically contracted by inhaling L. pneumophila, most often in aerosolized mists that contain the bacteria. At the SRS, L. pneumophila is typically found in cooling towers ranging from non-detectable up to 10⁸ cells/L in cooling tower water systems. Extreme weather conditions contributed to elevations in L. pneumophila to 10⁷–10⁸ cells/L in SRS cooling tower water systems in July–August 2017. L. pneumophila concentrations in Cooling Tower 785-A/2A located in SRS A-Area, stayed in the 10⁸ cells/L range despite biocide addition. During this time, other SRS cooling towers did not demonstrate this L. pneumophila increase. No significant difference was observed in the mean L. pneumophila mean concentrations for the towers (p < 0.05). There was a significant variance observed in the 285-2A/A Tower L. pneumophila results (p < 0.05). Looking to see if we could find “effects” led to model development by analyzing 13 months of water chemistry and microbial data for the main factors influencing the L. pneumophila concentrations in five cooling towers for this year. It indicated chlorine and dissolved oxygen had a significant impact (p < 0.0002) on cooling tower 785A/2A. Thus, while the variation in the log count data for the A-area tower is statistically greater than that of the other four towers, the average of the log count data for the A-Area tower was in line with that of the other towers. It was also observed that the location of 785A/2A and basin resulted in more debris entering the system during storm events. Our results suggest that future analyses should evaluate the impact of environmental conditions and cooling tower design on L. pneumophila water concentrations and human health.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Savannah River Site (SRS), Aiken, SC (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE

Grant/Contract Number:: AC09-08SR22470

OSTI ID:: 1766464

Report Number(s):: SRNS-STI--2020-00127

Journal Information:: Frontiers in Microbiology, Journal Name: Frontiers in Microbiology Vol. 11; ISSN 1664-302X

Publisher:: Frontiers Research FoundationCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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