Evaluating ATP testing for distribution system monitoring: Comparison to HPC, impact of chlorine quenching, and hold time dependency

Abstract ATP assays have a faster turnaround time and higher sensitivity than traditional cultivation methods for microbial monitoring. Challenges implementing ATP testing include incompatibility with chlorine quenching agents and hold time sensitivity, which are not well-studied. Chlorinated distribution system samples were collected from two Canadian utilities, Metro Vancouver (n = 40 samples) and Halifax Water (n = 283). No significant correlations were observed between HPC and cATP (p > 0.1), suggesting these do not correlate well in waters with low biological activity (median HPC < 2 CFU/mL). However, interpretation of HPC and ATP results (based on the HPC guideline of 100 CFU/mL and cATP of 10 pg/mL) yielded the same conclusion for 96% of samples, suggesting a potential decision-making framework to replace HPC with ATP. Moreover, cATP results correlate more consistently with free chlorine (Rs = -0.13 [p = 0.04, n = 283] and − 0.39 [p = 0.01, n = 40]) compared with HPC. Importantly, adding chlorine quench (10% sodium thiosulfate) did not produce significantly different cATP results (p > 0.4), nor did analyzing at various hold times of 4-, 6-, and 24-hour (p > 0.06). This study supports the integration of ATP testing into existing sampling procedures for water utilities, as a sensitive, fast, and reliable monitoring method.