Bacterial Movement in Subsurface Soil during Winter Irrigation of Reclaimed Wastewater

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The work requires basic microbiological aspects to be taken into consideration

Line 139 how much water was filtered for analysis, if CFU was reported per 100 mL, the amount of sample was 100 mL? Were negative controls used?

According to the method stated "Sample analysis should begin immediately, preferably within 2 hours of collection. The maximum transport time to the laboratory in 6 hours, and samples should be processed within 2 hours of receipt at the laboratory." Specify the transport time

Figure 3 has no purpose

Data regarding E. coli is insufficient, all aspects of the strain should be stated 

Author Response

Line 140 - volume of sample filtered was added (100 ml). No negative control

Line 131 - the study site was less than a 45 minute drive from the lab.

Figure 3 was removed

USEPA Method 1103.1 is for E. coli - no particular strain was isolated. https://www.epa.gov/sites/default/files/2015-08/documents/method_1103-1_2010.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

The manuscript sent by Guannan Ding et al. entitled Bacterial Movement in Subsurface Soil During Winter Irrigation of Reclaimed Wastewater " concerns a very important and interesting topic in water research. The article is written in a clear and understandable way. The selection of literature is appropriate and logical, there are no unnecessary citations. However, I do think the first paragraph needs certain references.

Here are a few suggestions for the author:

Figure 1: instead of taking a picture, the author may draw better figures to illustrate the wastewater treatment system and sampling locations.

Figure 3: please label the two pictures as A and B. Please include necessary labels.

Line 173: the manufacture for the water level meter?

Table 1-4: those tables should be more organized like table 5

The author mentioned the measurements are done in triplicates. Please include the average and standard deviations in the tables.

Through out the manuscript, it has many format issues and necessary double space. For example, line 277

Author Response

Figure 1 was redrawn

Figure 3 was removed as suggested by other reviewer

Manufacturer of water level included on line 168

Tables were edited

Not in triplicate (a co-author added this statement in error). The statement was removed.

Double spaces were removed