Gradual Recovery of Building Plumbing-Associated Microbial Communities after Extended Periods of Altered Water Demand during the COVID-19 Pandemic

COVID-19 pandemic-related building restrictions heightened drinking water microbiological safety concerns post-reopening due to the unprecedented nature of commercial building closures. Starting with phased reopening (i.e., June 2020), we sampled drinking water for 6 months from three commercial buildings with reduced water usage and four occupied residential households. Samples were analyzed using flow cytometry and full-length 16S rRNA gene sequencing along with comprehensive water chemistry characterization. Prolonged building closures resulted in 10-fold higher microbial cell counts in the commercial buildings [(2.95 +/- 3.67) x 105 cells mL-1] than in residential households [(1.11 +/- 0.58) x 104 cells mL-1] with majority intact cells. While flushing reduced cell counts and increased disinfection residuals, microbial communities in commercial buildings remained distinct from those in residential households on the basis of flow cytometric fingerprinting [Bray-Curtis dissimilarity (dBC) = 0.33 +/- 0.07] and 16S rRNA gene sequencing (dBC = 0.72 +/- 0.20). An increase in water demand post-reopening resulted in gradual convergence in microbial communities in water samples collected from commercial buildings and residential households. Overall, we find that the gradual recovery of water demand played a key role in the recovery of building plumbing-associated microbial communities as compared to short-term flushing after extended periods of reduced water demand.

Automated summary

COVID-19 pandemic-related building restrictions have raised concerns about the safety of drinking water microbiology after reopening commercial buildings. In this study, water samples were collected from three commercial buildings with reduced water usage and four residential households for six months. The analysis showed that prolonged building closures led to higher microbial cell counts in commercial buildings compared to residential households. Flushing reduced cell counts and increased disinfection residuals, but the microbial communities remained distinct in commercial buildings. However, the microbial communities gradually converged after the water demand increased post-reopening.