Heterotrophic bacteria isolated from a chloraminated system accelerate chloramine decay

This work comprehensively demonstrates the ability of heterotrophic bacteria, isolated from a chloraminated system, to decay chloramine. This study non-selectively isolated 62 cultures of heterotrophic bacteria from a water sample (0.002 mg-N/L nitrite and 1.42 mg/L total chlorine) collected from a laboratory-scale reactor system; most of the isolates (93.3%) were Mycobacterium sp. Three species of Mycobacterium and one species of Micrococcus were inoculated to a basal inorganic medium with initial concentrations of acetate (from 0 to 24 mg-C/L) and 1.5 mg/L chloramine. Bacterial growth coincided with declines in the concentrations of chloramine, acetate, and ammonium. Detailed experiments with one of the Mycobacterium sp. isolates suggest that the common mechanism of chloramine loss is auto-decomposition likely mediated by chloramine-decaying proteins. The ability of the isolates to grow and decay chloramine underscores the important role of heterotrophic bacteria in the stability of chloramine in water-distribution systems. Existing strategies based on controlling nitrification should be augmented to include minimizing heterotrophic bacteria.