Letters | Sunday, 14 February 2010

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Risk of Legionnaires disease

I read your article regarding Legionnaires Disease (LD) in fountains with great interest (7 February, 2010). LD is not only found in stagnant water: look at re-circulating cooling towers where water is continuously circulating – LD if often identified in these situations.
With respect to the treatment regime, UV does not provide a residual disinfectant, that is, no disinfectant is carried around the systems, it only kills bacteria in the UV chamber. Chlorine itself has a number of limitations, its performance greatly affected by the pH of the water and not effective at removing biofilm from system distribution pipework and components such as heat exchangers, filters, or strainers. Biofilm can remain attached to these areas even after a cleaning and chlorination programme.
I have been involved with industrial water treatment for the last 30 years, from cooling towers to bottled water plants, and would never run a public fountain without a carefully engineered water treatment package supported by a regular cleaning/monitoring programme.

Stephen Preston
Wallington, UK

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