New ICC Water & Health publication in the latest March issue of the top journal “Water Research”

In the latest March issue of the journal “Water Research” our article on the occurrence of human-associated genetic source tracking markers (GeBaM) in wastewater treatment plants has been published (citation at the end of this article). The study that was performed within the PhD thesis of Rene Mayer, convincingly shows the high concentrations of GeBaM in raw and treated wastewater. On average they are between 2 and 3 orders of magnitude higher than standard parameters like E. coli and enterococci and they can be determined with the same accuracy and precision.

By this a complementary highly sensitive use of these markers is possible concomitantly with the source identification of human faecal pollution. Surprisingly, the magnitude of GeBaM concentrations was high irrespective of the size of the treatment plant under investigation (the plants served between 3 and 50.000 inhabitants). Thus, the new parameters can sensitively be used also in rural regions with small settlements. The study was performed with renowned colleagues from international research facilities (University of Barcelona, Bavarian Environmental Agency) and will hopefully lead to an increased application of the complementary markers for monitoring faecal pollution of water resources.

The complete article is open access and can be loaded as pdf file from the journal´s website under the following link: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0043135415304280

Mayer R, Bofill-Mas S, Egle L, Reischer G, Schade M, Fernandez-Cassi X, Fuchs W, Mach R, Lindner G, Kirschner A, Gaisbauer M, Piringer H, Blaschke AP, Girones R, Zessner M, Sommer R, Farnleitner A (2016): Occurrence of human-associated Bacteroidetes genetic source tracking markers in raw and treated wastewater of municipal and domestic origin and comparison to standard and alternative indicators of faecal pollution.Water Research 90: 265–276