The role of bacteria in groundwater quality assessment

Bacteria may cause sickness. Bacteria and Water Wells provides the public with information and guidance about what steps should be taken if bacteria are present in a water well. This pamphlet is principally aimed at consumers using private wells as a water source. Homeowners have the responsibility to check the water quality of their private wells. For many people, the word bacteria brings immediate images of disease and sickness. The good news is that not all bacteria are harmful. There are bacteria everywhere, in the air, in the soil, in your mouth. The occurrence of bacteria in water is common, treatable, and in most cases, preventable. The ideal situation is to have no bacteria in drinking water, although most bacteria in water wells are harmless and pose little health risk. Ground water in the majority of properly constructed drilled wells isbacteria free. To ensure protection from any health risk, it is important for the public to understand something about microorganisms and how they may impact health.Until the ۱۹۷۰'s, scientific concepts and methods limited our knowledge of groundwater microbiology. First, it was common to assume that the ground- water environment was devoid of life. Second, methods for sampling ground- water environments for microbes were very limited. Third, it was generally assumed that water passing through the soil was purified by active microbial processes and by filtration, therefore, there was little concern with ground- water contamination. As ground-water contamination became more and more evident during the ۱۹۸۰'s, the motivation for understanding ground-water environments increased. In addition, new methods in microbiology, based on advances in molecular biology, provided microbiologists with new tools to explore this difficult-to-sample microbial habitat.

Keywords:

bacteria , groundwater quality , water well , groundwater microbiology