RAPID: Potable water hazards and resource needs in private well communities impacted by extreme flooding events

RAPID：受极端洪水事件影响的私人水井社区的饮用水危害和资源需求

• 批准号: 1760296
• 负责人: Marc Edwards
• 金额: $ 19.99万
• 依托单位: Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2017
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2017-10-01 至 2019-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1760296&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: RAPID; Potable; water; hazards; resource

Texans are starting to recover and rebuild from Hurricane Harvey, which caused record-setting flooding and widespread destruction. While efforts are underway to restore drinking water supplies and notify residents of potential contamination concerns, a significant percentage of the impacted population in Texas has complete responsibility for ensuring the safety and integrity of their own water supplies coming from private wells. Safe drinking water regulations do not apply to residential private wells in the United States. After the Great Louisiana Flood of 2016, the investigators' team learned that that even six weeks after the height of the flood, 20% of wells still tested positive for total coliform bacteria, and DNA markers for opportunistic pathogens were detected in 75% of wells for Legionella spp., 15% for L. pneumophila, and 20% for the brain-eating amoeba Naegleria fowerli. Such public health risks associated with flood-impacted wells have been widely unaddressed. Standardized communication and remediation strategies for private wells affected by natural disasters are urgently needed. Through this RAPID grant, the research team will collect microbial water quality data, and characterize resources and informational needs as residents in Texas (and Florida, following Hurricane Irma) return home and begin to use their private wells. This RAPID grant will help assist the private well owners impacted by Hurricane Harvey (Texas) and Hurricane Irma (Florida) in assessing and addressing the current safety of their potable water supply. Results from this research will inform whether one-time disinfection protocols should be recommended to private well residents for recovery, and also provide insight to impediments to disaster recovery when considering the microbial contamination encountered after severe flooding events. Results will aid the development of guidelines for government and public health officials, emergency responders, and private well owners, on well water hazards after floods and the resource needs of well owners. More effective intervention strategies will help well owners to protect themselves and their families from flood-associated hazards.

德克萨斯人开始从哈维飓风中恢复和重建，这造成了创纪录的洪水和广泛的破坏。尽管正在努力恢复饮用水供应并将潜在污染问题通知居民，但得克萨斯州受影响的人口中有很大一部分人完全负责确保其自身供水的安全性和完整性来自私人水井。安全的饮用水法规不适用于美国的住宅私人井。在2016年路易斯安那州大洪水之后，调查人员的团队得知，即使在洪水高度之后六周，20％的井仍对总大肠菌群细菌的测试呈阳性，并且在75％的井中检测到了机构病原体的DNA标记，为Legionella spp。与受洪水泛滥的井相关的这种公共卫生风险已被广泛解决。迫切需要针对受自然灾害影响的私人井的标准化沟通和补救策略。通过这笔快速的赠款，研究团队将收集微生物水质数据，并将资源和信息需求表征为德克萨斯州（和佛罗里达州飓风之后）的居民返回家园，并开始使用其私人井。这项快速赠款将有助于帮助受飓风哈维（德克萨斯州）和佛罗里达州飓风Irma（佛罗里达州）影响的私人井所有者评估和解决其饮用水供应的当前安全性。这项研究的结果将告知是否应向私人井居民推荐一次性消毒协议以恢复，并在考虑严重洪水事件后遇到的微生物污染时对灾难恢复的障碍。结果将有助于制定政府和公共卫生官员，紧急救援人员和私人井所有者的准则，以了解洪水后的水危害和井所有者的资源需求。更有效的干预策略将有助于良好的业主保护自己及其家人免受与洪水相关的危害。