C2H2 RCN: Water Security and Health of Private Well Users in the Gulf Coast

C2H2 RCN：墨西哥湾沿岸私人水井用户的水安全和健康

• 批准号: 2420817
• 负责人: Ann Ojeda
• 金额: $ 50万
• 依托单位: Auburn University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2024
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2024-04-15 至 2029-03-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2420817&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: C2H2; RCN; Water; Security; Health

Clean and sustainable water is necessary for good health. About 40 million people in the United States rely on private well water for drinking and household uses. Often, this water is not monitored or treated like water distributed through public supply systems leaving private well users at an increased risk of exposure to chemical or microbial components that can trigger or exacerbate health problems. The changing climate happening across the US can negatively influence water quality for private well users. It is, thus, important to understand how climate and water-contaminating factors work together to result in well water that is unsafe to drink with the potential for serious health consequences. A location particularly hard hit by this phenomenon is the US Gulf Coast. To address the climate/well water safety problem, a broad network of scientists, health/medical professionals, and other stakeholders in the Gulf Coast have created a Private Water Well Research Coordination Network. This network connects researchers and stakeholders across the well water ecosystem to enable a multi-pronged concerted effort to identify problems and possible solutions/interventions needed by those relying on private wells for drinking water. Goals are to help well owners and others understand the causes, health implications, and risks of consuming contaminated water and how to know if well water is compromised. The network will create public education and outreach materials; devise well water mitigation and improvement strategies; and develop means for alerting well users of declines in water quality due to climate-driven events such as salt water intrusion, flooding, and sewage/animal waste pond overflows. The network will create and disseminate best practices in water quality monitoring to help keep private well water safe. To accomplish these goals, the network holds regular virtual meetings that include strategy sessions, collaboration discussions, and planning of research agendas that include participation by geoscientists, health/medical professionals, and community/civic entities. The network is focused on actionable results, ones that align with high priority water-well user needs. Broader impacts include improved quality and safety of private water wells, production of educational materials to help better ensure safe well-derived drinking water, improved health of those relying on private well water, and means by which well owners can determine whether their water is safe to drink. Additional impacts include developing connections between geoscientists and health/medical practitioners, as well as addressing a serious problem in a number of EPSCoR states (Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi) across the South.Access to safe and sustainable drinking water is paramount for human health and well-being. Approximately 15% of the US population relies on private drinking water wells that do not adhere to approved drinking water standards or require monitoring and treatment that is done for municipal supplies. Private well users must act as their own water utility, assuming the responsibility for maintaining a safe water supply. Climate change, including salt water intrusion into coastal aquifers and water wells, drought that increases the concentration of toxic metals and/or organic/biological agents in groundwater, and flooding which can contaminate well water with bacteria and microbes from sewer outflows or livestock manure containment ponds. All have the potential to seriously impact the health of private well users. However, there is limited information for this segment of the population on how to understand and monitor water safety from phenomena driven by climate change at the timescale on which water safety is defined. The Private Water Well Research Coordination Network serves this pressing need and provides a coordinated and holistic joint geological and medical research effort to understand the interplay of social, demographic, and environmental factors that lead to and can compound negative health effects of drinking water from private wells. While this challenge is not limited to the US Gulf Coast, the focus of this network is on that region due to is particular vulnerability to climate change and growing population. The network involves development of a long lasting, dedicated network of geoscientists, medical/health professionals, state geological surveys, universities, land grant university extension agents, and other stakeholders. The network is broad and covers a geographic region that spans from Arkansas, across the southern Gulf Coast states to the Atlantic Ocean. Committed network members meet regularly, form teams around specific perils to Gulf Coast well water users, develop joint projects for funding by various entities, and work with community and civic organizations to prepare educational materials that disseminate information on practices that can help to ensure safety or private wells used for drinking water. They also devise means that can alert users when their well water could be compromised to help prevent serious health issues.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

清洁和可持续的水是健康所必需的。在美国，大约有4000万人依赖私人井水饮用和家庭生活。通常，这些水不像通过公共供水系统分配的水那样得到监测或处理，这使得私人水井使用者暴露在可能引发或加剧健康问题的化学或微生物成分的风险增加。美国各地正在发生的气候变化可能会对私人水井用户的水质产生负面影响。因此，重要的是要了解气候和水污染因素如何共同作用，导致井水不能安全饮用，并可能造成严重的健康后果。受这一现象影响特别严重的地方是美国墨西哥湾沿岸。为解决气候/井水安全问题，墨西哥湾沿岸的科学家、卫生/医疗专业人员和其他利益攸关方组成了一个广泛的网络，建立了一个私人水井研究协调网络。这一网络将井水生态系统中的研究人员和利益攸关方联系在一起，以实现多管齐下的努力，以确定那些依赖私人水井获取饮用水的人所需的问题和可能的解决方案/干预措施。目标是帮助井主和其他人了解饮用受污染水的原因、对健康的影响和风险，以及如何知道井水是否受到影响。该网络将创建公共教育和宣传材料；制定井水缓解和改善战略；并开发手段，提醒水井用户注意由气候驱动的事件造成的水质下降，如咸水入侵、洪水和污水/动物排泄物池塘溢出。该网络将创建和传播水质监测方面的最佳做法，以帮助保持私人水井的水安全。为实现这些目标，该网络定期举行虚拟会议，包括战略会议、协作讨论和研究议程规划，其中包括地球科学家、卫生/医疗专业人员和社区/民间实体的参与。该网络专注于可操作的结果，那些符合高度优先的水井用户需求的结果。更广泛的影响包括改善私人水井的质量和安全，制作教育材料以帮助更好地确保安全的井源饮用水，改善依赖私人井水的人的健康，以及井主可以用来确定其水是否可以安全饮用的手段。其他影响包括发展地球科学家和卫生/医疗从业者之间的联系，以及解决整个南部EPSCoR州(阿拉巴马州、阿肯色州、路易斯安那州和密西西比州)的一个严重问题。获得安全和可持续的饮用水对人类健康和福祉至关重要。大约15%的美国人口依赖私人饮用水水井，这些水井不符合批准的饮用水标准，或者需要对市政供水进行监测和处理。私人水井用户必须充当自己的自来水公司，承担维护安全供水的责任。气候变化，包括咸水侵入沿海含水层和水井，干旱增加地下水中有毒金属和/或有机/生物制剂的浓度，以及洪水可能通过下水道流出或牲畜粪便围隔池塘的细菌和微生物污染井水。所有这些都有可能严重影响私人油井使用者的健康。然而，这部分人口在如何理解和监测水安全的信息有限，无法在定义水安全的时间尺度上了解和监测由气候变化驱动的现象。私人水井研究协调网络满足了这一迫切需求，并提供了协调和全面的联合地质和医学研究努力，以了解导致并可能复合私人水井饮用水对健康的负面影响的社会、人口和环境因素的相互作用。虽然这一挑战并不局限于美国墨西哥湾沿岸，但该网络的重点是该地区，因为该地区特别容易受到气候变化和不断增长的人口的影响。该网络涉及建立一个由地球科学家、医疗/卫生专业人员、国家地质调查、大学、土地赠与大学推广机构和其他利益攸关方组成的长期、专门的网络。该网络范围很广，覆盖的地理区域从阿肯色州到南部墨西哥湾沿岸各州，一直到大西洋。承诺的网络成员定期开会，围绕墨西哥湾沿岸井水用户面临的具体危险组成小组，制定由不同实体提供资金的联合项目，并与社区和民间组织合作编写教育材料，传播有关有助于确保安全的做法的信息，并利用私人水井提供饮用水。他们还设计了一种方法，当井水可能受到危害时，可以提醒用户，以帮助防止严重的健康问题。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。