Poliovirus Movement During High Rate Land Filtration of Sewage Water

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Abstract
Research with soil columns that are good models of a field ground water recharge system showed that most polioviruses are held near the soil surface. Secondary sewage effluent seeded with poliovirus type 1 (LSc) was filtered through 250‐cm columns packed with calcareous sand from an area in the Salt River bed that is used for ground water recharging of secondary sewage effluent. When the concentration of poliovirus added to the sewage water was increased from 0.9 × 102 to 2.6 × 104 PFU/ml, the number of viruses detected at each soil depth increased with the increasing virus concentration in the sewage water. However, the percentage of added viruses that remained at each depth was about the same for each concentration. The differences in the strength of the negative charge among members of a given viral population could account for the adsorption of some viruses near the soil surface while others move farther through the profile.Increasing the flow rate from 0.6 to 1.2 m/day caused a virus breakthrough of <1% of the added virus. However, 99% of the viruses still were removed from the infiltrating water at flow rates as high as 12 m/day. The velocity of water movement through the soil may be the single most important factor affecting the depth of virus penetration.
Funding Information
  • Baylor College of Medicine (R‐805,292)