Many people perceive the sea as a holiday destination but seawater quality can be a real problem for the mayors of seaside resorts.
If the water is temporarily contaminated, they alone have the authority to open or close their beaches... a decision which can have serious sanitary or economic consequences. In 2003, the French Association of seaside resort mayors (ANEL) asked Veolia to improve contamination research tests. Veolia's R&D developed a bacteria identification process by means of a fluorescent reagent visible after only 1 hour: the Coliplage® process.
The measurement of water quality on French beaches is carried out by the DDASS (1) whose agents use the microplate analysis technique (ISO 9307-3).
Although efficient, this test has one major drawback: it only gives results after 36 hours. Furthermore, analyses are carried out on a one-off and not a daily basis. Aware of the problem and in anticipation of the toughening of European regulations, ANEL contacted Veolia in June 2003.
(1) Departmental Directorate of Health and Social Affairs
To meet these ambitious specifications, Veolia Water asked the water research Center, in charge of the project, to develop solutions allowing non-specialized staff to carry out analyses in less than 4 hours. In 2003 and 2005 two patents were registered for a process called Coliplage®, in reference to the bacterium which detects water contamination in one hour.
In 2004, 12 pilot municipalities took part in the testing phase of the analysis protocol and contributed to its improvement. At the same time, Veolia implemented an incident management system, making Coliplage® part of a global process, which was praised by the ministry of ecology in 2004.
In 2007, the Coliplage® system made it possible to monitor 152 beaches.
Escherischia coli is the name of the bacterium indicating the faecal contamination of water and the presence of other pathogenic micro-organisms currently undetectable by direct measurement.
The Coliplage® process uses the properties of an enzyme produced naturally by this bacterium. To detect the activity of this enzyme (Beta-D-glucuronidase), an artificial substance (Mu-Glu), which degrades when in contact with this enzyme, is used.
This degradation releases a molecule which becomes fluorescent under UV rays. Rapid appearance of fluorescence therefore reflects high enzyme activity, due to the massive presence of E. coli bacteria, and therefore the contamination of bathing water.
Anne-Sophie Lepeuple, Microbiologist and Coliplage® project leader at the time
"In research as in every other domain, it is easier for a team to come up with good ideas. (...) By tapping into Veolia's network, we learnt (...) that the Norwegians had developed a technique to evaluate the level of contamination of seawater ten years before. Our main task was to turn this sophisticated laboratory analysis method into a field method easy to use on a large scale and which could be implemented very quickly.(...) We developed a partnership with two academic teams: the Banyuls Ocean Observatory and the Brussels Free University. (...) Veolia's strength is using everyone's skills to invent a new technology to meet unsatisfied needs: in the case of Coliplage®, the daily knowledge of water quality."
A fluorescent reactive substance for a pro-active response
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