The Benefits of Enhanced and Accelerated Biological Monitoring Capabilities for Membrane Treatment Optimization

The groundwater that St. John the Baptist Parish in southern Louisiana supplies to residents has been high in organic material and color. Options available for rapid and accurate microbiological water testing are very limited. ATP (Adenosine Triphosphate) is the primary energy transfer molecule for all living cells on Earth and therefore its measurement is a directly tied to the microbial population. As such, it is the ideal basis for risk assessment. For this groundwater treated with reverse osmosis, ATP monitoring quickly identified elevated microbial content not only in the raw water, permeate, and reject, but also within the membranes themselves.