Evaluation of groundwater pollution through microbiological techniques: the case of S. Pancrazio Salentino tuff quarry

Groundwater pollution can be a serious problem for human health, especially if the water is used for drinking purposes. The pollution depends on human activities (agricultural and industrial) which are often uncontrolled on natural resources. In the present study we report some results about a preliminary investigation on a tuff quarry that has been used for ten years as a landfill of pharmaceutical waste (residues of antibiotic production). It is located close to the San Pancrazio Salentino town, in the south of Apulia Region (Italy). The study was performed in order to assess an "eco-diagnosis" of the tuff quarry. In particular, here we report the main results regarding the analyses of microbial communities of water samples collected both from the internal (the polluted site) and external quarry wells (control site) in order to compare the different sites. The structure and functioning of the bacterial community was studied by evaluating the bacterial abundance (by DAPI counts), the cell viability (Live/Dead method) and the Microbial Community Composition by Fluorescence In Situ Hybridization (FISH). The overall results showed that the groundwater quality state was quite low on the basis of the abundance, viability and diversity values.