RAPID: Shutdowns and Consequences — Extreme Plumbing Stagnation and Recommissioning

为应对COVID-19，全国各地爆发性地关闭学校、企业和活动场所，以鼓励保持社交距离，这将在多个层面上造成破坏。虽然越来越多的人宣布关闭2-4周，但一些组织警告说关闭时间会更长。提案团队自己的学校和办公楼的水检测证据表明，这种长期关闭将对建筑饮用水安全产生严重后果：化学和微生物水质可能会带来严重的公共卫生风险。当居民返回时，他们将遇到铅、铜和细菌浓度过高的极度停滞的水，其中可能包括嗜肺军团菌等病原体。对于长期停工后重新开放的建筑物，没有国家或行业指导方针。对大规模停工和管道净化造成的水质恶化机制的基本认识严重缺乏。州和地区卫生官员协会（ASHO）为10万多名公共卫生专业人员提供服务，并明确表示缺乏建设重新委托做法。COVID-19建筑物的关闭为研究多个其他运营建筑物中的化学-微生物-物理-材料相互作用提供了难得的机会。在全规模和实验室规模下，该团队将（1）描述延长建筑关闭期间的消毒剂，重金属和细菌变化，以及（2）开发基于证据的管道修复方法来解决水质恶化问题。使用受COVID-19影响的大学校园，在5个月的时间内对关闭或未充分利用的建筑物的水质进行表征（目标1）。普渡大学春季学期的所有面对面课堂会议均已取消，而研究活动可以继续，以便对受关闭影响的建筑物进行真实规模的研究。在秋季学期之前，将测试去污程序（目标2）。将平行进行实验室规模的实验，以模拟用水条件，并探讨影响恶化和管道去污效果的基本因素。该团队将阐明在COVID-19爆发期间以及许多其他灾难期间，控制全国范围内发生的管道极端化学和微生物转化的基本因素。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The explosive onset of school, business, and event venue shutdowns across the nation to encourage social distancing in response to COVID-19 will be disruptive on multiple levels. While 2-4 week shutdowns are increasingly being declared, some organizations have warned of longer closures. The proposing team's own school and office building water testing evidence indicates such extended shutdowns will have drastic consequences on building drinking water safety: chemical and microbiological water quality potentially presenting serious public health risks. As inhabitants return, they will encounter extremely stagnated water with excessive lead, copper, and bacterial concentrations, that may include pathogens like Legionella pneumophila. There are no national or industry guidelines for building reopening after extended shutdowns. A fundamental understanding of water quality deterioration mechanisms precipitated by large-scale shutdowns and plumbing decontamination is critically lacking. The Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO) serves over 100,000 public health professionals and has made clear that building recommissioning practices are lacking. The COVID-19 building closures present a rare opportunity to study chemical-microbiological-physical- material interactions in multiple otherwise operational buildings. At both full- and bench-scales, the team will (1) characterize disinfectant, heavy metal, and bacterial changes during extended building closures, and (2) develop evidence-based plumbing remediation methods to address water quality deterioration. Using a college campus affected by COVID-19, water quality will be characterized in closed or under- utilized buildings over the course of 5 months (Objective 1). All in-person class meetings have been cancelled for spring semester at Purdue, while research activities can continue, allowing real-scale study of buildings impacted by closure. Before fall semester, decontamination procedures will be tested (Objective 2). Bench-scale experiments will be conducted in parallel to simulate water use conditions and probe the fundamental factors that influenced deterioration and plumbing decontamination effectiveness. The team will elucidate the fundamental factors that control extreme chemical and microbiological transformations in plumbing that are occurring nationwide during the COVID-19 outbreak, as well as during many other disasters.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.