Natural Organic Matter, Orthophosphate, pH, and Growth Phase Can Limit Copper Antimicrobial Efficacy for Legionella in Drinking Water

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dc.contributor.authorSong, Yangen
dc.contributor.authorPruden, Amyen
dc.contributor.authorEdwards, Marc A.en
dc.contributor.authorRhoads, William J.en
dc.contributor.departmentCivil and Environmental Engineeringen
dc.date.accessioned2021-05-24T14:24:11Zen
dc.date.available2021-05-24T14:24:11Zen
dc.date.issued2021-02-02en
dc.description.abstractCopper (Cu) is a promising antimicrobial for premise plumbing, where ions can be dosed directly via copper silver ionization or released naturally via corrosion of Cu pipes, but Cu sometimes inhibits and other times stimulates Legionella growth. Our overarching hypothesis was that water chemistry and growth phase control the net effect of Cu on Legionella. The combined effects of pH, phosphate concentration, and natural organic matter (NOM) were comprehensively examined over a range of conditions relevant to drinking water in bench-scale pure culture experiments, illuminating the effects of Cu speciation and precipitation. It was found that cupric ions (Cu2+) were drastically reduced at pH > 7.0 or in the presence of ligand-forming phosphates or NOM. Further, exponential phase L. pneumophila were 2.5x more susceptible to Cu toxicity relative to early stationary phase cultures. While Cu2+ ion was the most effective biocidal form of Cu, other inorganic ligands also had some biocidal impacts. A comparison of 33 large drinking water utilities' field-data from 1990 and 2018 showed that Cu2+ levels likely decreased more dramatically (>10x) than did the total or soluble Cu (2x) over recent decades. The overall findings aid in improving the efficacy of Cu as an actively dosed or passively released antimicrobial against L. pneumophila.en
dc.description.notesThis work was funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) #1706733 and the Virginia Tech Institute for Critical Technology and Applied Science. NSF NNCI Award 1542100 further provided lab resources for this research. The views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the NSF. We acknowledge the professional consultation support of Adam Estelle from the Copper Development Association. We appreciate Dr. Jeffrey Parks and Jody Smiley for analytical measurement support and Carol Yang for her contribution to the lab work.en
dc.description.sponsorshipNational Science Foundation (NSF)National Science Foundation (NSF) [1706733]; Virginia Tech Institute for Critical Technology and Applied Science; NSF NNCINational Science Foundation (NSF)NSF - Office of the Director (OD) [1542100]en
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdfen
dc.identifier.doihttps://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.0c06804en
dc.identifier.eissn1520-5851en
dc.identifier.issn0013-936Xen
dc.identifier.issue3en
dc.identifier.pmid33428375en
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10919/103452en
dc.identifier.volume55en
dc.language.isoenen
dc.rightsCreative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 Internationalen
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/en
dc.subjectcopperen
dc.subjectLegionella pneumophilaen
dc.subjectcorrosion controlen
dc.subjectnatural organic matteren
dc.subjectpremise plumbingen
dc.titleNatural Organic Matter, Orthophosphate, pH, and Growth Phase Can Limit Copper Antimicrobial Efficacy for Legionella in Drinking Wateren
dc.title.serialEnvironmental Science & Technologyen
dc.typeArticle - Refereeden
dc.type.dcmitypeTexten
dc.type.dcmitypeStillImageen

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Scholarly Works, Civil and Environmental Engineering
Destination Area: Global Systems Science (GSS)