{"id":1208,"date":"2019-08-01T02:10:06","date_gmt":"2019-08-01T02:10:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ampac1.com\/blog\/efficacy-of-flushing-and-chlorination-in-removing-microorganisms-from-a-pilot-drinking-water-distribution-system\/"},"modified":"2026-05-03T20:22:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T03:22:10","slug":"efficacy-of-flushing-and-chlorination-in-removing-microorganisms-from-a-pilot-drinking-water-distribution-system","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ampac1.com\/blog\/efficacy-of-flushing-and-chlorination-in-removing-microorganisms-from-a-pilot-drinking-water-distribution-system\/","title":{"rendered":"Efficacy of Flushing and Chlorination in Removing Microorganisms from a Pilot Drinking Water Distribution System"},"content":{"rendered":"
Quick Answer:<\/strong> Flushing pipes helps get rid of bacteria floating in the water, but it doesn’t do much for the tough stuff, like biofilm, that sticks to pipe walls. Chlorination can keep those free-floating bacteria in check, but it won’t fully clear out established biofilms. When you combine flushing with chlorination, you’ll see a bigger drop in microbes than with either method alone. Just remember, biofilms can grow back pretty quickly, often within days after treatment stops.<\/div>\n

\\\\n\\\\n<\/p>\n

\\\\n<\/p>\n

By:<\/span>van Bel, N (van Bel, Nikki)[\u00a01<\/a>\u00a0]\u00a0<\/b><\/sup>; Hornstra, LM (Hornstra, Luc M.)[\u00a01<\/a>\u00a0]\u00a0<\/b><\/sup>; van der Veen, A (van der Veen, Anita)[\u00a01<\/a>\u00a0]\u00a0<\/b><\/sup>; Medema, G (Medema, Gertjan)[\u00a01<\/a>,2<\/a>\u00a0]<\/b><\/sup><\/p>\n

\\\\n\\\\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\\\\n<\/p>\n

\\\\n<\/p>\n

drinking<\/a>-water-migrating-from-plastic-pipe-distribution-system-pose-adverse-effects-to-human-an-analysis-of-scientific-literature\/”>drinking<\/a>-water-produced-by-a-reverse-osmosis-pilot-plant\/”>WATER<\/a><\/p>\n

\\\\n\\\\n<\/p>\n

\\\\n<\/p>\n

Volume:<\/span>\u00a011<\/p>\n

\\\\n<\/p>\n

Issue:<\/span>\u00a05<\/p>\n

\\\\n\\\\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\\\\n<\/p>\n

Article Number:<\/span>\u00a0903<\/p>\n

\\\\n<\/p>\n

DOI:<\/span>\u00a010.3390\/w11050903<\/p>\n

\\\\n<\/p>\n

Published:<\/span>\u00a0MAY 2019<\/p>\n

\\\\n<\/p>\n

Document Type:<\/span>Article<\/p>\n

\\\\n\\\\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\\\\n<\/p>\n

\\\\n<\/p>\n
Abstract<\/div>\n

\\\\n<\/p>\n

We all want safe drinking water, right? That means keeping our water pipes in good shape is super important. Sometimes, during repairs or accidents, dirty water or soil can sneak into the pipes. Before we put those pipes back in service, they need a good cleaning. We tested how well flushing and shock chlorination work using a model pipe system. We added natural or cultured biofilm, plus some extra microbes like E. coli, Clostridium perfringens spores, and phiX174. On average, flushing got rid of about 1.5-2.7 log of microorganisms from the water, but it didn’t touch the biofilm. Plus, any sand we added didn’t completely clear out. It didn’t even matter if we flushed at 0.3 or 1.5 m\/s, the results were about the same. Shock chlorination, using 10 mg\/L for 1-24 hours, was really good at killing E. coli and phiX174. Clostridium perfringens spores, though, were a bit tougher. Interestingly, chlorination worked a little better in pipes with natural biofilm compared to cultured biofilm. So, just flushing isn’t enough after a high-risk repair or incident. You should really consider shock chlorination to make sure the water is safe to drink. And of course, always use clean procedures, find and isolate any contamination, and tell people to boil their water if there’s a confirmed issue. That’s just smart practice.<\/p>\n

\\\\nhttp:\/\/cel.webofknowledge.com\/InboundService.do?customersID=Alerting&smartRedirect=yes&mode=FullRecord&IsProductCode=Yes&product=CEL&Init=Yes&Func=Frame&action=retrieve&SrcApp=Alerting&SrcAuth=Alerting&SID=8AgEg6IWuqKMLnSfHCr&UT=WOS%3A000472680400033<\/a>\\\\n\\\\n \\\\n\\\\n<\/div>\n

\\\\nThe post Efficacy of Flushing and Chlorination in Removing Microorganisms from a Pilot Drinking Water Distribution System<\/a> appeared first on Facts About Water<\/a>.\\\\n\\\\nSource: Water Feed<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To ensure delivery of microbiologically safe drinking water, the physical integrity of the distribution system is an important control measure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":87939,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,29],"tags":[22],"class_list":["post-1208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-water-filter","category-water-treatment","tag-ro"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ampac1.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ampac1.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ampac1.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ampac1.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ampac1.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1208"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.ampac1.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1208\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":88634,"href":"https:\/\/www.ampac1.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1208\/revisions\/88634"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ampac1.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87939"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ampac1.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ampac1.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ampac1.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}