Development of an Irrigation Water Quality Database to Identify Water Resources and Assess Microbiological Risks During the Production of Fresh Fruits and Vegetables

Elizabeth A Bihn,Randy W Worobo,Bill Lyons,Annette L Wszelaki,Kurt J Mangione,John J Churey,Don M Stoeckel

doi:10.3389/frwa.2021.741653

Abstract

An Irrigation Water Quality Database was developed to help assess the microbiological quality of irrigation water used in fruit and vegetable production in 15 counties in New York (NY) State. Water samples from Tennessee (TN) were also included in the database. Four water quality parameters, quantified generic Escherichia coli, specific conductance, pH, and turbidity, were tested. Ground, reservoir, and running water were sampled over 2 years (2009 and 2010), covering three seasons each year (spring, summer, and fall). TN data are for all three seasons in 2010 only. Overall in NY (254 total samples), ground water had a geometric mean of 1 most probable number (MPN)/100 ml, reservoir water had a geometric mean of 8 MPN/100 ml, and running water had a geometric mean of 52 MPN/100 ml. Overall in TN (63 total samples), ground water had a geometric mean of 1 colony forming unit (CFU)/100 ml, reservoir water had a geometric mean of 5 CFU/100 ml, and running water had a geometric mean of 38 CFU/100 ml. These values are all below the 126 MPN/100 ml United States Environmental Protection Agency's Ambient Water Quality Standards (AWQS) standard for fresh water. The presence of E. coli had very weak but sometimes statistically signficiant correlatation with water specific conductance, pH, and turbidity, depending on the water source but the r-squared effect was not strong enough to make the other measurements a substitute for testing specifically for E. coli in water.

Highlights

Fresh fruit and vegetable production is a multi-billion dollar industry in the United States (U.S.) (Kaufman et al, 2000)
Recreational water criteria set forth by United States Environmental Protection Agency’s Ambient Water Quality Standards (AWQS) (United States Environmental Protection Agency, 2012) were developed for water used for recreation that results in full body contact by people, and it accepts that there is a baseline of individuals who are expected to contract gastrointestinal illness regardless of recreational water quality
Overall for New York (NY) State, ground water had a geometric mean of 1 most probable number (MPN)/100 ml, reservoir water had a geometric mean of 8 MPN/100 ml, and running water had a geometric mean of 52 MPN/100 ml

Summary

Introduction

Fresh fruit and vegetable production is a multi-billion dollar industry in the United States (U.S.) (Kaufman et al, 2000). These commodities are often irrigated with surface water throughout the U.S (Suslow et al, 2003; Pachepsky et al, 2011). In addition to industry adoption of these standards, the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) Produce Safety Rule, released on November 27, 2015, included AWQS-based water quality criteria for water used during the production of fresh produce when the water is intended to, or likely to, contact the harvestable portion of the crop (United States Food and Drug Administration, 2015)

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