Grantee Research Project Results
2020 Progress Report: Community-level Management of Human Health Risks from Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) with Defensive Natural Capital Investments
EPA Grant Number: R836942Title: Community-level Management of Human Health Risks from Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) with Defensive Natural Capital Investments
Investigators: Hochard, Jacob P , Etheridge, Randall , Peralta, Ariane , Sims, Charles
Institution: East Carolina University , University of Tennessee
EPA Project Officer: Hahn, Intaek
Project Period: August 1, 2017 through July 31, 2019 (Extended to July 31, 2021)
Project Period Covered by this Report: August 1, 2019 through July 31,2020
Project Amount: $399,226
RFA: Integrating Human Health and Well-Being with Ecosystem Services (2016) RFA Text | Recipients Lists
Research Category: Human Health
Objective:
Our multidisciplinary social-ecological (economics/econometrics, ecological engineering, soil ecology) modeling and empirical investigation seeks to (i) identify and measure the effect of swine production operations on local human health, (ii) examine if land cover, soil types, hydrographic relationships and public institutions mediate health outcomes and (iii) construct neighborhood-specific recommendations to inform community-level management of human health risks. We hypothesize that CAFO-linked contaminants cause downstream adverse health outcomes, which are attenuated by natural capital between source contaminants and households. We also hypothesize that natural capital is more valuable to those communities lacking public services, which buffer communities from upstream contaminants.
Specifically, our Year 3 project timeline for research activities included –
• Constructing/printing of technical and tailored reports.
• Delivery of reports and final community meetings.
• Final project meeting to share results, outline reports, manuscripts and publications
No-Cost Extension:
On June 20, 2020, our team requested and was granted a no-cost extension through July 31, 2021. The final portion of our project is centered on community engagement, which was stalled by the global pandemic and the majority of municipality and county staff in our study region working remotely. We have used this additional time to adapt our community outreach approach through spring 2021 and remain on schedule.
The NCE Expected Milestones include:
September 15th to November 15th, 2020:
Construction and completion of technical and tailored reports.
January 15th, 2021 to March 30th, 2021:
Delivery of reports and final community meetings
May 30th, 2021 to July 31st, 2021:
Final project meetings with community stakeholders to share results, outline reports, manuscripts and publications.
I am delighted to report that we are on track and on budget with our planned NCE milestones and expect our project to be completed by July 31st, 2021.
Progress Summary:
Our project website remains live at www.ourncwater.org, which has been advertised through county health offices and using social media (@ourncwater) to our study area counties. The website advertises current sampling activities and efforts by the research team and recognizes U.S. EPA support of our research activities in the study area.
We will upload all manuscripts and reports to this website once our findings have been communicated to our county public health stakeholders. Abstracts that include key findings in these manuscripts are included below.
Since August 1, 2017, our research team has collected information from 50,000 well water samples and over 2 million birth outcomes from 1996 to 2018. These environmental and human outcomes have been analyzed in the context of North Carolina’s 100 counties that are prone to recurring tropical storm and flooding exposures, strong prevailing wind patterns, intensive animal agriculture, proximity to hazardous waste sites and local sources of natural and built capital that may provide a potential buffer against human exposures to airborne and waterborne pollutants. Specific focus of our analyses has been on North Carolina’s coastal plain, which contains shallow aquifers, porous soils and the nation’s leading pork producing counties that typically store animal waste in uncovered lagoons. To better understand potential human exposures in this context, we have measured (i) the direct impacts of surface contamination sources on downstream and downwind environmental and human health outcomes and (ii) human behavioral responses to potential signals of risk to human health. We have also examined the institutional settings that generate these “risk signals” by facilitating groundwater monitoring throughout the State of North Carolina with a specific focus on private well water sampling activity as it relates to local and seasonal risks of groundwater contamination.
Our preliminary findings detect a clear air temperature threshold of 90-degrees Fahrenheit where total coliform and E. coli detection spikes downstream of swine lagoons. This spike is not seen in samples upstream of lagoons or in samples collected during cooler weather. Alternative contamination sources cannot explain the presence of the contamination spike. We show that private well water sampling occurs uniformly throughout the calendar year. Because wells are not being tested systematically when the risk of contamination is highest, we predict that annual total coliform and E. coli contamination rates near swine lagoons are 25% and 103% higher than prior thought. We detect a similar phenomenon related to arsenic testing in well water downstream of hazardous waste sites. Warm and dry seasons cause a decisive spike is arsenic contamination rates that lead to the prediction that annual arsenic contamination rates are likely to be 163% higher than prior thought downstream of hazardous waste sites. We show that slight revision to state and federal guidelines that encourage well water testing during high-risk seasons has the potential to improve public health by closing a gap between perceived and actual risks of drinking water contamination. Such seasonally targeted groundwater monitoring may also require expanded public and environmental health infrastructure and testing and collection capacity.
In addition to physical and institutional factors, we find anecdotal evidence that homeowners downstream of animal agriculture operations tend to drill deeper wells, which may be designed to access protected, sub-surficial aquifers that are less prone to contamination. The average homeowner in our coastal plain sample lives approximately 3 kilometers from its nearest CAFO. For each one-kilometer increase in CAFO proximity, homeowners extend their well casing depth by 30 feet. To the extent that our sample is representative of all study area wells, we estimate the total private drilling cost of CAFO avoidance approaches $88 million but is as little as $406,000 per annum. Taken together, these findings suggest risk signals from well testing are incomplete and understate the true likelihood that private wells downstream of contaminated sites become contaminated in a given year. However, based on local knowledge and the existing risk signals, homeowners have taken on a cost to mitigate potential well contamination.
The airborne impacts of animal feeding operations (AFOs) on downwind birth outcomes are also examined. We find evidence of a negative effect of in-utero exposure to swine facilities on birth outcomes. These findings include impacts on the incidence of preterm births and very low birth weight outcomes, which are absent from mothers who live upwind of AFOs and are concentrated on mothers whose gestation period coincides with spraying seasons. Birth outcomes are examined in the broader context of hurricane exposures. Independent analysis of two hurricanes show birth weights and gestation lengths are reduced and the rate of preterm births increased following in utero exposure. We document a delay and reduction in prenatal care services stemming from disrupted access from hurricane anticipation.
Future Activities:
• January to February 2021: Virtual Summits of Project Team and Local Stakeholders
o Virtual Summit #1: Public health officials from Sampson, Duplin, Harnett, Bladen, Pender and Cumberland counties.
o Virtual Summit #2: State environment and public health officials (NC Department of Health and Human Services and NC Department of Environmental Quality – Division of Water Resources).
o Virtual Summit #3: Non-profit collaborators (e.g., Sound Rivers, NC Agromedicine Institute, etc.) and other local stakeholders.
• April 2021: Design, Printing and Distribution of Key Findings and Collated Non-Technical Summaries from Manuscripts #1-#6.
• June-July 2021: Final project meetings, manuscript submissions and reporting.
Journal Articles on this Report : 1 Displayed | Download in RIS Format
Other project views: | All 22 publications | 5 publications in selected types | All 5 journal articles |
---|
Type | Citation | ||
---|---|---|---|
|
Kruse J, Hochard J. Economics, insurance, and flood hazards. Southern Economic Journal 2019;85(4):1027-1031. |
R836942 (2019) R836942 (2020) |
Exit |
Progress and Final Reports:
Original AbstractThe 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.