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Discussion on Total plate count bacteria in water
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New Member:
Amandad
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Posted on Monday, Feb 13, 2006 - 9:15 pm:
I just got the well water tested at the barn where my horse is. The water is brown and it smells bad! The results showed total plate count bacteria at 624 cfu/ml. It is above the recommended 500 cfu/ml level for getting water treated. I have read all the guidelines for water quality and you do not mention tpc count. What does this mean? (cfu=colony forming units per ml) What kind of bacteria are they talking about?(fecal coliform was not detected)
I am also waiting for more testing for metals.
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Moderator:
DrO
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Posted on Tuesday, Feb 14, 2006 - 7:16 am:
TPC would be the name of the test they ran and the results are reported in CFU's is the way I read you using the words. Odor is not always indicative of problems there are some organisms that "fix" sulfur making hyDrOgen sulfide, it smells awful but is perfectly safe according to our local sanitarians and the brown could be iron. You should follow the recommendations of your local sanitarians but if the bacteria are not pathogens it is hard to get jostled by 624 vs 500.
You will need to ask the folks who ran the test what type bacteria they found as it greatly effects the importance.
DrO
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Member:
Heidih
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Posted on Tuesday, Feb 14, 2006 - 12:38 pm:
CFU stands for Colony Forming Units. What that means is there were 624 colonies of bacteria growing on an individual plate. TPC stands for Total Plate Count, which is a generic bacterial test. Usually if it's a generic plate count, there's no way to find out what kind of bacteria it is. Fecal Coliforms are pretty nasty and include e.coli. If these were NOT Found, that indicates that the well has bacteria, but that it isn't contaminated with sewage or human or animal waste. It may be a simple case of the pipes need to be sterilized or there may be some bacteria in the actual water. The bacteria should be cleared up by chlorinating the water.
I hope this helps.
Heidi
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