Municipal drinking water distribution systems (DWDSs) and associated premise plumbing (PP) systems are vulnerable to proliferation of opportunistic pathogens, even when chemical disinfection residuals are present, thus presenting a public health risk. Monitoring the structure of microbial communities of drinking water is challenging because of limited continuous access to faucets, pipes, and storage tanks. We propose a scalable household sampling method, which uses spent activated carbon and reverse osmosis (RO) membrane point-of-use (POU) filters to evaluate mid- to long-term occurrence of microorganisms in PP systems that are relevant to consumer exposure. As a proof of concept, POU filter microbiomes were collected from four different locations and analyzed with 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing. The analyses revealed distinct microbial communities, with occasional detection of potential pathogens. The findings highlight the importance of local, and if possible, continuous monitoring within and across distribution systems. The continuous operation of POU filters offers an advantage in capturing species that may be missed by instantaneous sampling methods. We suggest that water utilities, public institutions, and regulatory agencies take advantage of end-of-life POU filters for microbial monitoring. This approach can be easily implemented to ensure drinking water safety, especially from microbes of emerging concerns; e.g., pathogenic Legionella and Mycobacterium species.

市政饮用水分配系统 (DWDS) 和相关的室内管道 (PP) 系统即使存在化学消毒残留物，也容易受到机会性病原体扩散的影响，从而构成公共卫生风险。由于对水龙头、管道和储罐的连续访问有限，监测饮用水微生物群落的结构具有挑战性。我们提出了一种可扩展的家庭采样方法，该方法使用废活性炭和反渗透 (RO) 膜使用点 (POU) 过滤器来评估 PP 系统中与消费者接触相关的微生物的中长期出现情况。作为概念证明，从四个不同地点收集了 POU 过滤器微生物组，并使用 16S rRNA 基因扩增子测序进行分析。分析揭示了不同的微生物群落，偶尔检测到潜在的病原体。研究结果强调了在分销系统内部和跨分销系统进行本地监控（如果可能的话）持续监控的重要性。 POU 过滤器的连续运行具有捕获瞬时采样方法可能遗漏的物种的优势。我们建议水务公司、公共机构和监管机构利用报废 POU 过滤器进行微生物监测。这种方法可以轻松实施，以确保饮用水安全，特别是防止新出现的微生物的安全；例如，致病性军团菌和分枝杆菌。