Acute toxicity screening methods may be effective tools, when properly applied, toensure the security of drinking water treatment, storage and distribution systems. While thesesystems are experiencing wide-spread use by utilities in the United States, limited informationhas been published in the open literature (States et. al., 2003 and 2004) regarding the sensitivityof these methods to acutely toxic substances in a water sample and the practical detection limitsfor these systems in water treatment and distribution systems.In addition to the acute toxicity screening methods discussed above, there is also a needfor field concentration methods to facilitate rapid detection of specific pathogens during drinkingwater security incidents. These methods also could be used by a variety of first responders. TheUnited States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) is currently developing and testing afield concentration method based on ultrafiltration. This USEPA method will allowconcentration of large volumes of water in the field. In the interim, Pittsburgh Water and SewerAuthority (PWSA) and the University of Pittsburgh have developed a simple reliable method forfield concentration of smaller volumes of environmental samples in water treatment anddistribution systems. This field concentration method can be used to improve the sensitivity ofrapid Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) methods as well as other assays. Includes 5 references, tables, figures.
