Aeration remediation of a polluted waterway increases near-surface coarse and culturable microbial aerosols

• Vertical gradient in culturable bacterial aerosols was detected above a polluted public waterway.
• Higher numbers of culturable bacterial aerosols were closer to the water surface.
• Likely sources for these bacterial aerosols include terrestrial and aquatic environments.
• Aeration of these polluted waters enhances the water–air bacterial connection.
• Aeration increased water–air transfer of bacteria in genera known to contain pathogens.

Aeration remediation is currently used in polluted urban waterways to increase oxygen levels in the water column. Recent studies have provided increasing evidence that the bursting of bubbles at water surfaces introduced by aeration, or other surface disturbances, can transfer viable bacteria to the air. In heavily sewage-polluted waterways these water-originated bacterial aerosols may pose as a health risk to recreators in small boats or residents inhabiting the shoreline. Nonetheless, few studies have explored aerosols above active aeration remediation projects in waterways or investigated how bacterial aerosols change with vertical distance from aeration activities. This study, conducted at the Newtown Creek superfund site in Brooklyn, NY, USA, measured coarse aerosol particles and culturable bacteria in near-surface air above waters undergoing aeration remediation. Regardless of aeration operation culturable bacterial fallout was greater near-surface (0.6 m above water) than previously-reported measurements made at 2.5 m. Molecular analysis of the 16S rRNA gene sequences from isolated bacteria demonstrates that water and air shared a large number of bacterial genera and that the genera present in the near-surface aerosols (0.6 m) contained water-associated Vibrio and Caulobacter, which were not present at 2.5 m, despite the smaller sequence library size from the near-surface. Also, the near-surface microbial assemblage had significantly greater association with sequences detected previously in aquatic environments compared to the 2.5 m library. We found compelling evidence that aeration activity contributed to this vertical gradient in bacterial aerosol concentrations and identity. Similar to results from 2.5 m, concentrations of near-surface respirable coarse aerosols (< 10 um) increased significantly when aeration was occurring. Culturable bacterial aerosol fallout was also greater near-surface when the aerator was on compared to simultaneous measurements made at 2.5 m. Furthermore, when the aerator was operating, the near-surface bacterial aerosol assemblage was statistically more similar to water assemblages than when the aerator was off. These findings highlight the potential for aeration remediation to increase exposure to viable bacterial aerosols in recreators (e.g. kayakers), a problem of greater concern where surface water is heavily polluted with sewage, as in Newtown Creek.