You’ve likely heard of ATP technology, but may not have had the time to fully explore the value it can bring to your existing microbial monitoring program. Here’s a brief overview on how you can use ATP testing to identify and mitigate microbiological issues in your drinking water treatment and distribution system.

Traditional testing methods

If your microbial monitoring toolbox consists of plate counts, like HPCs, and more specific biological tests like Colilert and BART analyses, you’re likely waiting at least 1-2 days for results and missing a large portion of the overall microbial population that’s present in your system. While there is value in the data obtained from these methods, they are not well-suited to assess total microbiological risk or to quickly troubleshoot issues that present themselves.

These limitations are causing more and more water utilities to implement ATP testing because of its ability to quantify the total biological population in less than 5 minutes.

How to incorporate ATP testing into your microbial monitoring program

Here’s a quick guide on how – and where – to incorporate ATP testing into your microbial monitoring program/process:

Distribution system troubleshooting

When utilities experience water quality issues in their distribution system it doesn’t take long for consumers to notice. During periods of increased water quality complaints, ATP testing can immediately be taken into the field to determine whether there is increased microbial growth in the distribution system, identify premise plumbing issues, or to confirm that it’s a non-biological issue. If microbial contamination is detected, ATP allows operators to quickly trace the lines to identify the root cause while still in the field.