Removal of microorganisms by deep well injection

Abstract

The removal of bacteriophages MS2 and PRD1, spores of Clostridium bifermentans (R5) and Escherichia coli (WR1) by deep well injection into a sandy aquifer, was studied at a pilot field site in the southeast of the Netherlands. Injection water was seeded with the microorganisms for 5 days. Breakthrough was monitored for 93 days at 4 monitoring wells with their screens at a depth of about 310 m below surface. Within the first 8 m of soil passage, concentrations of MS2 and PRD1 were reduced by 6 log 10, that of R5 spores by 5 log 10 and that of WR1 by 7.5 log 10. Breakthrough of MS2 and R5 could also be followed at greater distances from the injection well. Concentrations of MS2 were reduced only by about 2 log 10 in the following 30 m, and reduction of concentrations of R5 was negligible. Apparently, attachment was greater during the first 8 m of aquifer passage. At the point of injection, the inactivation rate coefficient of free MS2 was found to be 0.081 day −1, that of free PRD1 0.060 day −1, and that of E. coli strain WR1 0.063 day −1. In injection water that had passed 8 m of soil, inactivation of MS2 phages was found to be less than in water from the injection well: 0.039 day −1. Probably, the higher inactivation rate of MS2 in water from the injection well may be ascribed to the activity of aerobic bacteria. Inactivation of the R5 spores was not significant. From geochemical mass balances, it could be deduced that within the first 8 m distance from the injection well, ferric oxyhydroxides precipitated as a consequence of pyrite oxidation, but not at larger distances. Ferric oxyhydroxides provide positively charged patches onto which fast attachment of the negatively charged microorganisms may take place. The non-linear logarithmic reduction of concentrations with distance may therefore be ascribed to preferable attachment of microorganisms to patches of ferric oxyhydroxides that are present within 8 m distance from the injection point, but not thereafter. Declogging of the injection well introduced hydrodynamic shear that remobilized MS2, which was then transported farther downstream.