Researchers at UBC Okanagan have come up with a new device for detecting contaminants in drinking water, one that is not only portable and inexpensive but can provide results in real time.
Water contaminated with Cryptosporidium continues to be a worldwide health concern, one that is thought to cause between 30 and 50 per cent of childhood deaths in the developing world.
The intestinal parasite can survive outside of a host for up to 16 months and has a high resistance to common disinfectants.
Once it finds a home, Cryptosporidium can cause diarrhea in healthy adults and in severe cases can lead to death in children and immuno-compromised individuals.
Cryptosporidium can be a problem in the developed world, too, as witnessed in 1993 when a massive outbreak in Milwaukee infected more than 400,000 people and caused over 100 deaths.
Hence the need for an accurate and accessible method to detect the pathogen, say the authors of a new study published in the journal Sensors.
“Current methods for detecting Cryptosporidium require filtering large volumes of water, separating out the organisms, staining them with a fluorescence label and trying to identify the pathogen using a microscope,” says George Luka, a doctoral student at UBC Okanagan’s School of Engineering and the study’s lead author, in a press release.
“The process is extremely slow, expensive and doesn’t yield reliable results.” Luka and colleagues developed a calibrated biosensor involving anti-Cryptosporidium antibodies attached to electrodes that can act as capture probes.
“The biosensor performed exactly as we were hoping and was able to measure Cryptosporidium contamination rapidly and without the need for complex preparations and highly-trained technicians,” says Luka.
“This is an impressive solution that can easily be integrated into inexpensive and portable devices to test drinking water in real-time anywhere in the world.” Luka says that the new biosensor has the potential to find uses beyond Cryptosporidium detection.

Although the Trenton Water Works has missed one deadline to correct a violation of a drinking water standard and will miss the deadline to correct another violation, the water is safe to drink, according to the city-owned utility that provides drinking water to some Hopewell Township households.
In a Feb. 4 letter sent to all Trenton Water Works customers, the water utility acknowledged that it had failed to remediate the maximum contaminant levels for two drinking water contaminants – haloacetic acids and total trihalomethanes – within one year of their initial exceedances.
Both are disinfectant by-products.
The letter states that the Trenton Water Works routinely monitors for the presence of drinking water contaminants.
Our water system failed to remediate the haloacetic acids maximum contaminant level by the one-year deadline of Dec. 8, 2018,” the letter said.
The Trenton Water Works also exceeded the maximum contaminant level for total trihalomethanes, which is 80 parts per billion, during the first, third and fourth quarters of 2018, the letter said.
The two chemicals – haloacetic acids and total trihalomethanes – are formed when disinfectants (chlorine) react with natural organic matter in the water.
Meanwhile, Trenton Water Works officials are taking steps to reduce the disinfectant byproducts in the water system, including adding a second permanganate feed line and repairing a blocked carbon feed line at the water filtration plant, the letter said.
The turbidity – a measure of organic matter – of water throughout the plant is being monitored on a regular basis.
The Trenton Water Works is conducting more frequent sampling for disinfectant byproducts in the distribution system.

The chemical compounds are all around you.
At hearings around the country last year, local and state officials asked the agency to set a maximum level for PFAS in drinking water nationwide.
Manufacturers say newer forms are safer and don’t remain in the human body as long as older types.
The 2005-2013 study monitored and tested nearly 70,000 people who had been drinking water tainted with PFOA, one of two kinds of PFAS since phased out of production.
The federal toxicology report also says EPA’s ‘advisory level’ of 70 parts per trillion of PFOA and PFOS – the two older, phased-out versions – in drinking water is too weak.
EPA-mandated testing of about 5,000 of the roughly 150,000 public water systems in the US that was completed in 2016 found dangerous levels of the same two PFAS compounds in 66 systems.
Tests found drinking water contamination exceeding the EPA’s health advisory for a lifetime of exposure for two PFAS compounds, PFOS and PFOA.
Michigan agencies plan to sample a variety of wild game, such as ducks and other waterfowl, for the chemicals.
They already test fish and deer.
___ Casey reported from Concord, New Hampshire, and Flesher reported from Traverse City, Michigan,

Water Turbidity Analysis
ITANAGAR: A team of scientists and environmental engineers from Arunachal Pradesh State Pollution Control Board (APSPCB) has collected water samples from the Panyor (Ranganadi) river in Lower Subansiri district for turbidity analysis.
The samples were collected from the river on Saturday following reports of downstream impact after Ranganadi Hydro Electric Power Corporation (NEEPCO) shut down its project from February 9 last for carrying out repair works in the tunnels, official sources informed here on Sunday.
The collected samples will be sent to Guwahati-based National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories for analysis and measurement of water turbidity, the sources said.
The river water in the downstream of the project in Yazali has turned extremely turbid after the annual maintenance work, resulting in the death of countless fishes.
State Environment and Forest Minister Nabam Rebia on Friday carried out an inspection of the impact of siltation at the downstream and asked the project authorities to immediately carry out preventive measures.
Also Read: ARUNACHAL NEWS

When Fantastic Caverns went public with concerns about chemical pollution from a Springfield industrial site, property owners with wells nearby flooded state regulators with requests for free water well testing.
The first 35 free water well samples have been tested, and DNR reports that five of those had the chemical, though at levels below the EPA’s maximum allowable limit for human exposure in drinking water.
"The department is mailing sampling results letters for the first 35 wells sampled to property owners this week," said Valerie Wilder, DNR Superfund section chief.
DNR so far has collected samples from 145 private drinking water wells; seven wells were sampled on Nov. 15; 28 wells on Nov. 19; and 110 wells Dec. 3-4.
"The Department will be resampling any well with a detection of TCE in January to verify the results," Quinn added.
Before these latest water well tests, DNR previously tested more than 70 private drinking water wells in the area and found 13 with detectable levels of TCE, including one well that showed TCE slightly above the EPA’s Maximum Contaminant Level of five parts per billion.
According to DNR, a public well system known as the County Squire Village well (a public well serving 189 people located 1.5 miles east of the Litton site) had a detection of TCE in 2010 of 0.5 parts per billion TCE, and then again in 2016 of 0.71 parts per billion.
Both levels are below EPA’s limit for drinking water and there has been no treatment system added to remove the contaminant.
However, Fantastic Caverns has begun drilling a series of vent holes near the show cave in hopes of catching TCE vapors before they reach the public areas.
Quinn, at DNR, said carbon filtration systems and reverse osmosis systems are effective at removing volatile organic compounds (VOCs), including TCE, from drinking water.

Democratic lawmakers are accusing the Trump administration of dragging its feet on plans to protect Americans from a key class of drinking water contaminants.
Lawmakers say the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) needs to commit to quickly setting a maximum allowable level in drinking water for per- and poly-fluoroalkyl (PFAS) substances, which have been linked to cancer and other health problems.
“The PFAS Action Plan being trumpeted by EPA today is insufficiently protective, and it explains why Acting Administrator Andrew Wheeler would not commit to setting a drinking water standard for PFAS during his nomination hearing last month,” Sen. Tom Carper (Del.
), the top Democrat on the Environment and Public Works Committee, said in a statement.
“While we applaud aspects of this plan that respond to demands by members who have been pushing to address dangerous PFAS contamination in their districts, ultimately this plan fails to meet the challenge our nation faces with this growing water contamination and health crisis,” the chairmen said.
“Without a commitment to develop enforceable drinking water standards for PFOA and PFOS, there’s no certainty that this strategy will sufficiently confront the challenges PFAS chemicals pose to states and affected communities,” she said, referring to two of the most common chemicals in the family.
“The Environmental Protection Agency’s PFAS plan is only a first step.
As I have said before, EPA must speak clearly about the risk that this class of chemicals poses to public health and the environment,” he said in a statement.
“The agency must be willing to take decisive action where it is warranted.” Other Republicans — even those who have been vocal on the need for more action on PFAS — welcomed the plan.
Rep. John Shimkus (Ill.), the top Republican on the Energy and Commerce Committee’s environment subcommittee, said he understood complaints that the EPA is kicking the can down the road, but he supports the plan as it was laid out.

Gov.
Forty percent of Wisconsin residents get their drinking water from private wells, according to the Wisconsin Department of Health and Human Services.
Nitrates are one of the most common drinking water contaminants in private wells.
Nitrate contamination is caused by runoff from fertilizers, septic systems, and manure storage and spreading.
Infants are particularly sensitive to nitrates, which they ingest when contaminated water is used to reconstitute baby formula.
When consumed, nitrates can cause a potentially fatal disease in infants called methemoglobinemia, or blue-baby syndrome, that limits red blood cells’ ability to carry oxygen throughout the body.
Some research also suggests that excess nitrates can cause gastrointestinal cancers in people and mice.
A 2017, La Crosse County Health Department survey found that 30 percent of the more than 540 wells they tested in Onalaska and Holland contained nitrates above the federal standard of 10 milligrams per liter.
The federal drinking water standards is 10 micrograms per liter for arsenic and 10 milligrams per liter for nitrates.
Evers will also put $75,000 toward the Southwest Wisconsin Groundwater and Geology study to better understand the interplay between geology and groundwater in Grant, Iowa, and Lafayette Counties, where 42 percent of wells tested above federal standards for nitrates in an initial survey.

FOUNTAIN, Colo. – A public forum was held Thursday with the Environmental Protection Agency to hear from residents affected by contaminated water in Fountain and Security-Widefield.
It’s believed chemicals from firefighting foam used on Peterson Air Force Base contaminated the aquifer between Security-Widefield and Fountain.
Now, people in the area are being found with elevated levels of toxic chemicals in their blood.
Thursday’s meeting was the fourth in recent months to learn about the impact Perfluorinated chemicals are having in our community.
Research shows exposure to these compounds has been linked to cancer, infertility, and brain damage in both children and adults.
"I’m going to weather through as long as I can," said Kenneth Bond, who’s lived in Fountain for 26 years.
Water coalition groups argue that method is not effective and takes too long.
"People can take us to court and say you didn’t fully take our comments in consideration and the courts will send us back to do it over again," said Benevento.
Right now, the agency explains they’re in part two of a three-part process to implement a maximum contaminant level.
A Harvard study dating back to 2016 found contaminated levels of PFC’s around 664 military fire training sites across the country, affecting 6 million people.

(Photo11: Matthew Dae Smith/Lansing State Journal) Two weeks after the Rosenbrooks left Independence Commons, the state’s Department of Environmental Quality cited Potterville for numerous violations at its wastewater treatment plant.
Potterville hadn’t submitted an adequate groundwater monitoring plan to the state, according to the DEQ violation, and the city didn’t have a properly certified operator overseeing its wastewater treatment plant.
The Rosenbrooks and two other families filed a lawsuit Jan. 9 against the city of Potterville and Independence Commons.
Alexis Rosenbrook said her family left their manufactured home at Independence Commons because they believed the environment and the water there were making them sick.
Vahdat said testing was done in the Independence Commons community that indicated the drinking water was contaminated with coliform.
She notified the city and the community’s management about her concerns numerous times, she said.
“We did have some odor,” he said.
The DEQ’s Bennett said municipalities are responsible for monitoring the condition of a plant’s lagoons and a facility’s odor.
Bussard said the DEQ has inspected the city’s wastewater plant numerous times since 2008, but never indicated the plant presented a danger to nearby residents’ health.
Vahdat said one of the strongest cases for concern is the letter from Clayton Rosenbrook’s doctor.

The EPA has not actually taken action to regulate these today," said northern Kentucky attorney Rob Bilott.
The chemicals in question are called PFOS and PFOA.
You don’t want high levels of them in your drinking water.
Botkins has ulcerative colitis.
On Thursday, the EPA announced both a short-term and long-term action plan, helping localities clean up and potentially setting maximum PF chemical levels for water.
We found it in communities in their drinking water systems.
"It shouldn’t take 20, 30 years to regulate and set drinking water standards for a chemical in this country, in the United States.
That should not be the way things happen," he said.
Both Cincinnati and northern Kentucky water works say there are no detectable PF chemicals in local drinking water.
However, a scientific study found elevated levels of PFOA in a test group of northern Kentucky girls about a decade ago.