Grantee Research Project Results

2024 Progress Report: Building Resilience to PFAS Exposure on Vulnerable Coastal Communities Prone to Extreme Weather Floods: Brevard County FL as a Case Study

EPA Grant Number: R840045
Title: Building Resilience to PFAS Exposure on Vulnerable Coastal Communities Prone to Extreme Weather Floods: Brevard County FL as a Case Study
Investigators: Quiñones, Katherine Deliz
Institution: University of Florida
EPA Project Officer: Hahn, Intaek
Project Period: August 1, 2020 through July 31, 2023 (Extended to July 31, 2025)
Project Period Covered by this Report: August 1, 2023 through July 31,2024
Project Amount: $798,193
RFA: Contaminated Sites, Natural Disasters, Changing Environmental Conditions and Vulnerable Communities: Research to Build Resilience (2019) RFA Text | Recipients Lists
Research Category: Endocrine Disruptors , Safer Chemicals , Sustainable and Healthy Communities

Objective:

The main goal of this project is to work with vulnerable coastal communities and stakeholders in Florida to better understand the diversity, fate, transport, and exposure pathways of PFAS after flooding events, and follow a holistic approach that integrates Community-Engaged Research (CEnR), systematic environmental sampling, laboratory experiments, and a risk framework model to mitigate community exposure, and increase communities’ resilience.

Specific objectives are:

Objective 1. Identify exposure pathways for PFAS in Brevard County vulnerable communities.

Objective 2. Characterize diversity and concentration ranges of PFAS in environmental and biological media before and immediately after a flooding event.

Objective 3. Understand the effect of major flood events on the mobility and risk exposure of PFAS with the goal to build community resilience.

Progress Summary:

Community Engagement Activities: During the fourth year of the project our research group maintained close communication with community partner leaders to identify additional funding opportunities that support research addressing PFAS pollution impacts on ecosystems and community health. The UF team has worked to expanding our reach by exploring collaborations with Florida-based community health workers to directly address local concerns about PFAS pollution, increase awareness, and enhance resilience among vulnerable communities. In addition to our Socio-Environmental Cluster Analysis completed during the 2022-2023 project term, we examined the relationship between our socioenvironmental clusters and the CDC Environmental Justice Index, demonstrating increased performance of our proposed cluster analysis to communities most vulnerable to pollutant exposure.

Field and Laboratory Activities: Our primary efforts this year centered around laboratory work, specifically analyzing and quantifying PFAS in both environmental and laboratory samples (from sorption and desorption studies) and interpreting the collected data to prepare findings for publication and dissemination. We made significant progress towards understanding the presence and concentrations of PFAS in various samples, which support our goal of identifying areas of higher exposure risk to communities.

Future Activities:

In year 5 of the project, we will complete ongoing tasks associated with objectives 2 and 3, specifically nontarget analysis of selected samples of interest, and system dynamics-based model linking community behavior, extreme events, and water quality to assess PFAS resilience in our targeted community. Future Community Engagement activities will be focused on data dissemination to increase science literacy in PFAS contamination and exposure. The UF team will share the completed results of our study to be shared in Fight for Zero website (https://www.fight4zero.org/ufproject) and will answer question from the community. Research and community engagement activities beyond the EPA project will be determined based on community concerns. We will also continue our partnerships with stakeholders

Journal Articles on this Report : 6 Displayed | Download in RIS Format

Publications Views
Other project views:	All 10 publications	10 publications in selected types	All 10 journal articles

Publications
Type	Citation	Project	Document Sources
Journal Article	Camacho CG, Antonison A, Oldnettle A, Costa KA, Timshina AS, Ditz H, Thompson JT, Holden MM, Sobczak WJ, Arnold J, Kozakoff M. Statewide Surveillance and Mapping of PFAS in Florida Surface Water. ACS ES&;T Water. 2024 4,10, 4343–4355.	R840045 (2024)	Full-text: ACS Publications Full-Text and Abstract HTML Exit
Journal Article	Griffin EK, Hall LM, Brown MA, Taylor-Manges A, Green T, Suchanec K, Furman BT, Congdon VM, Wilson SS, Osborne TZ, Martin S. Aquatic vegetation, an understudied depot for PFAS. Journal of the American Society for Mass Spectrometry. 2023 10;34(9):1826-36.	R840045 (2024)	Full-text: ACS Publications Full Text HTML Exit Abstract: PubMed Abstract HTML
Journal Article	Mehdi Q, Griffin EK, Esplugas J, Gelsleichter J, Galloway AS, Frazier BS, Timshina AS, Grubbs RD, Correia K, Camacho CG, Bowden JA. Species-specific profiles of per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in small coastal sharks along the South Atlantic Bight of the United States. Science of The Total Environment. 2024 1;927:171758.	R840045 (2024)	Full-text: ScienceDirect Full Text HTML Exit Abstract: PubMed Abstract HTML
Journal Article	Santiago Borrés SE, Kumar S, Bonzongo JC, Deliz Quiñones KY, Jutla A. A Multi-Factor Analysis Linking Environmental Stressors with Presence of Per-and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) in a Coastal Lagoon. ACS ES&T Water. 2024 12;4(8):3464-74.	R840045 (2024)	Full-text: ACS Publications Full Text and Abstract HTML Exit
Journal Article	Santiago Borres S, Deliz Quiñones KY, Huynnh A, Bowden JA, Bonzongo JC, Jutla A, Coker ES. Tracking sinks of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances in Florida soils: A community-informed study. Soil and Environmental Health, 2024 2(2):100082.	R840045 (2024)	Full-text: ScienceDirect Full Text and Abstract HTML Exit
Journal Article	Sinkway TD, Mehdi Q, Griffin EK, Correia K, Camacho CG, Aufmuth J, Ilvento C, Bowden JA. Crowdsourcing citizens for statewide mapping of per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in Florida drinking water. Science of The Total Environment. 2024 20;926:171932.	R840045 (2024)	Full-text: ScienceDirect Full Text HTML Exit Abstract: PubMed Abstract HTML

Supplemental Keywords:

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), Community Engaged Research (CEnR), fate and transport, water quality, Brevard County Florida, flooding, pollutant exposure, vulnerable communities

Relevant Websites:

Protecting Brevard from Toxic Chemicals Exit

Progress and Final Reports:

Original Abstract

The perspectives, information and conclusions conveyed in research project abstracts, progress reports, final reports, journal abstracts and journal publications convey the viewpoints of the principal investigator and may not represent the views and policies of ORD and EPA. Conclusions drawn by the principal investigators have not been reviewed by the Agency.