I have run into several situations where systems have done their bacterial sampling and were advised by the laboratory and the Health Department that there was a presence of Coliform, or worse, E. Coli bacteria in the sample they submitted. Next comes the boil water announcement. At this point the news media takes over and all kinds of scenarios are fabricated. The public (customer) hears this news from the local TV or Radio news anchor who is the "worlds foremost authority" on water treatment and distribution system operation and control, and panics. The news media doesn’t know that if you get a positive reading at one location, you have to re-test at least four more locations in that area to confirm the original finding. Nine out of ten times the next four to ten samples come in negative. Now we have a mystery. Could it have been a contaminated sample bottle or poor sampling practice?

First of all let’s make sure that we have the proper treatment practices in effect so that we can attest to the fact that we are doing our job properly. After many years of safe samples we may get a little lax in our daily procedures of treatment and disinfection. We take shortcuts, assuming that all is well. We put off some little things like checking the chlorine pump for the proper delivery rate, our turbidity goes up a bit and we leave the chlorine pump set the same, we put off cleaning the chlorine pump head because we have other things to do that day, we don’t check the solution strength, we don’t consider that on very hot days it may be better to have a little more chlorine in our potable water, just to mention a few. These are not accusations of dereliction of duty or incompetence but come from operator experiences, including mine!

The next thing to look at is our sampling procedure. I would like to list a procedure for bacterial sampling and then we can take it apart to find our possible shortcomings. These are my personal procedures and I do believe the Health Department would agree. If any Health Department personnel are reading this article and disagree or would like to comment, I encourage them to get in touch with me or write an article for our magazine to give operators the proper procedures for bacterial sampling, if other than mine.

1. Make sure you have a good certified lab.
2. Keep the sample bottle or bottles in a sanitary condition or environment.
3. When going out to sample wear clean clothes.
4. Wash hands thoroughly.
5. Make sure that the faucet you are sampling from is in good shape.
6. Transport bottle or bottles in a clean truck or box in the truck.
7. Remove any screens or point of use additions that are on the sample faucet.
8. Flame faucet to destroy bacteria on and in faucet. Careful, see # 9
9. Carry chlorine or alcohol so that you can immerse the faucet if it is plastic or cannot be flamed.
10. Run water for three minutes from disinfected faucet at a steady flow and shut down.
11. Disinfect faucet again and run water at a slow rate to prevent splashing for about three minutes.
12. Open bottle carefully, with clean hands, hold top in down position, do not place on counter top or sink.
13. Hold bottle at slight angle and insert into flow, under faucet to collect sample. When almost to top, pull back, away from flow and cap immediately. The bottle does not have to be full. The bottles are 125 ml and only 100 ml’s are needed to do the test. Do not overflow or rinse the bottle!
14. Submit the sample or samples as soon as possible to your testing lab.

This whole procedure should not take more than 10-15 minutes. This is a very low cost to pay for insuring that you have a good sample. If you have a bad sample, it will be more costly, not only financially but also on your nervous system with dissatisfied customers and board members, not to mention the input of the news media. This is why we have to make sure that the job we do is the best and there is no recall on our services. Our professionalism is at stake; by our actions and performance we show the public what a water plant operator is and what he can do. Remember, a doctor can cure a waterborne disease and how many can we prevent with our diligence and professionalism. I know that this may be hard to do because of the multiple duties that all of us perform, but we have to strive to do the best and then we can sleep, with the knowledge that there are regulatory agencies that will work with us and back us up because of our dependability and integrity.

Now let’s look at some of the things that could go wrong with our sampling procedures, due to complaisance, or rush, using the previous steps of procedure:

1. Sometimes a lab is chosen because of cost and not their record. "Bad" sample bottles have been issued, not disinfected or prepared for bacterial sampling.
2. We ride around with the sample bottles rolling around our unsanitary truck or store them in areas that can contaminate them unintentionally.
3. Wearing work clothes that may have been worn to do sewer or storm drain repairs previously and putting sample bottles in the pockets can compromise the condition of the sterility of the bottles.
4. Clean hands are a must! Bacteria are everywhere and can be carried on hands for a long time, even picked up going into the residence we are about to sample. Another thing to consider is our own health, we should be extremely careful, when taking samples, if we have some sort of infection, cold, flu, etc. we should seriously consider this during sampling.
5. Sample faucets should be in an open area, not a "slop sink in the basement" or outside faucets that can be contaminated by bacteria. Remember, the water we are sampling is the water that our customers ingest and not the water they use to water the garden or wash the car. The most logical sample point is the kitchen sink. This is the most likely spot of contamination.
6. As I said before, keep your bottles in a sanitary environment from the time you get them until you use them.
7. Removing screens, aeration devices and point of use filters is extremely important. Check the treads inside or outside, make sure they are disinfected. Think, this is the most important part of your sample.
8. Flaming usually destroys all local bacteria but be sure you are dealing with a metal faucet. Many faucets are made of plastic and people can sue!
9. For plastic faucets, carry a small amount of chlorine or alcohol with you and a small beaker. Fill the beaker, with the disinfectant, and immerse the end of the faucet in the solution for about 1 minute or use a cotton swab to thoroughly swab the disinfectant solution inside the tip of the faucet.
10. Running water, at a high rate, for 3 minutes, from the flame-disinfected faucet will remove any possible debris that are in it and bring in the chlorine residual you have in the water main and system. Shut down the faucet.
11. Re-disinfect the faucet with flame or liquid disinfectant. This insures that if there was any splashing the first time you didn’t re-contaminate it again.
12. Now re-open the faucet at a trickle (nice steady flow) and let run for about 1 minute. How many of us open the sample bottle and put the cap on the counter, inside down? When you open the bottle, make sure you don’t touch the treads or the neck of the bottle. If you drop the bottle or cap do not use it for a sample! Get another sample bottle. If you have snap open bottles, be sure that your hands are clean, this is the most violated rule. If you have a bad sample, the DOH doesn’t care about poor sampling procedure, or excuses. You had a coliform hit and will have to do follow up sampling. This is rightfully so. You and I are dealing with public health and there are no excuses for mistakes, for us anyway.
13. Holding the bottle at a slight angle, while taking a sample, we can see the quantity of water in the bottle and there is less chance of overflowing it and possibly contaminating the sample.
14. Submit the sample ASAP. Keep it cool, a refrigerated cooler would be best. This doesn’t have to be elaborate, just a simple cooler and some ice in it. This also lowers the chance of bacterial growth. Riding around for a day in a hot truck, while we perform other duties isn’t good sampling procedure. No matter what other duties may come to light, other than life threatening, they should not take president over the sampling procedure. This is to protect public health and our reputation (professionalism). This is the prime directive of the Health Department compliance directive for water plant and system operation. They (NYSDOH) are not out to get us but are there to make sure they can prove that we know what we are doing. It’s up to us!

All of the "goofs" that I have mentioned are not things that any one operator of any one system is guilty of. We all take short cuts! Sometimes they come back and bite us. When they do it’s usually on the evening news and in the local newspaper, which escalates to the regional newspaper.

I know that the first group of procedures I mentioned sounds elementary but think of how many of us follow it to the letter. I hope that the second group of possible goofs reminds us of our deficiencies. If I missed any, give me a call and wake me up. Nobody, (you, DOH or engineering) is exempt of possibly making a mistake! We all have to work towards the end of providing the safest potable water to all of our customers. They are our relatives, neighbors and friends. The NYSDOH will work with you to abate any problems you might have, you have to work with them, talk things over and if there is a problem, give us a call and we will come in and meet with you and/or the NYSDOH to try to help you conform to the recommendations made by them. Sometimes their recommendations seem impossible, but if looked at sensibly, they are following other Federal regulations. NYSDOH has to also meet USEPA (United States Environmental Protection Agency) regulations and pass them on to you. If we all work together, we can provide the public with the best potable water possible. This is up to us!

Sometimes we lack the funding for process control equipment suggested by regulatory agencies or engineering to stay in compliance. This can be augmented by some of the programs of loans and grants available from USDA-RUS (United States Department of Agriculture- Rural Utilities Services) and the New York State Revolving Fund Services. There are other loan and grant providers that can also help. Give us a call and we will assist you in researching what’s available and where you will stand with the competition.