Monitoring of β-d-Galactosidase Activity as a Surrogate Parameter for Rapid Detection of Sewage Contamination in Urban Recreational Water

Abstract: Simple, automated methods are required for rapid detection of wastewater contamination in urban recreational water. The activity of the enzyme b-D-galactosidase (GAL) can rapidly (5 LOG10. Furthermore, the GAL-activity per gram feces from birds, sheep and cattle was 2–3 LOG10 lower than the activity from human feces, indicating that high GAL-activity in water may reflect human fecal pollution more than the total fecal pollution. The rapid method can only be used to quantify high levels of human fecal pollution, corresponding to about 0.1 mg human feces/liter (or 103 E. coli/100 mL), since below this limit GAL-activity from non-fecal environmental sources may interfere.