Basic Principles of Comprehensive Biotesting of Drinking Water and Point System Classification of Water Quality

Resumo

Basic principles of forming test systems for biotesting of natural and drinking waters, and the factors affecting test-systems during the biotesting procedure have been studied. New directions of selecting sensitive test reactions of organisms and test criteria for the quality assessment of natural and drinking waters based on the results of comprehensive biotesting are proposed. The universal point system for drinking water quality estimation was developed. It is based on summation of biotesting results using 4–5 species of animal and plant test-organisms of different systematic and trophic levels. In addition, the total toxicity index of water samples under investigation was also developed. The findings were used in the preparation of the State Standard of Ukraine “Quality of water. Comprehensive biotesting of natural water. Requirements to the selection and cultivation of test organisms. Water quality classification based on the point system”.