Grantee Research Project Results
2021 Progress Report: Untapping the Crowd: Consumer Detection and Control of Lead in Drinking Water
EPA Grant Number: CR839375Title: Untapping the Crowd: Consumer Detection and Control of Lead in Drinking Water
Investigators: Edwards, Marc , Berglund, Emily , Pieper, Kelsey , Katner, Adrienne , Cooper, Caren
Current Investigators: Edwards, Marc , Berglund, Emily , Pieper, Kelsey , Katner, Adrienne , Cooper, Caren , Roy, Siddhartha , Kriss, Rebecca , Scherer, Michelle
Institution: Virginia Tech , University of Iowa , Louisiana State University , North Carolina State University , Texas A & M University
EPA Project Officer: Hahn, Intaek
Project Period: April 1, 2018 through March 31, 2021 (Extended to March 31, 2023)
Project Period Covered by this Report: April 1, 2021 through March 31,2022
Project Amount: $1,981,500
RFA: National Priorities: Transdisciplinary Research into Detecting and Controlling Lead in Drinking Water (2017) RFA Text | Recipients Lists
Research Category: Drinking Water , Water
Objective:
We are developing a consumer-centric framework to detect and control water lead risks by achieving the following objectives: 1) inventory infrastructure and analytical data, 2) predict risks with quantitative models, 3) evaluate models through citizen science, 4) intervene with site-tailored strategies to avoid water lead exposure, and 5) scale deliverables to a national level.
OBJ. 1. INVENTORY.
We are collecting and reviewing existing data and literature (Obj. O1.1), collecting data from communities (Obj. O1.2), and crowdsourcing knowledge of lead in water levels, lead bearing plumbing, patterns of water use and treatment systems, and perceptions of water quality (Obj. O1.3).
OBJ. 2. PREDICT.
We are developing a Bayesian Belief Network (BBN) model of household-level citizen risk considering the three key variables controlling lead in drinking water (Obj. 2.1); will expand the household-level BBN to a GIS-enabled BBN model to simulate risk for neighborhoods and communities (Obj. 2.2), will conduct scenario analysis to explore how a range of other variables such as chlorine residuals, treatment options, source water composition, and demographics affect community-level risk (Obj. 2.3); and are integrating the models and inventory data into a scalable information technology (IT) platform (Obj. 2.4).
OBJ. 3. EVALUATE.
We are evaluating the accuracy of existing low-cost citizen science lead in water testing technologies, both in the laboratory and in the field, to quantify the range of particulate lead forms that can be encountered in practice, and compare results to EPA standard method sample preparation and analysis (Obj. 3.1); and will utilize appropriate testing technologies based on the prevalence and type of lead particulates encountered in a community to evaluate BBN models (Obj. 3.2).
OBJ. 4. INTERVENE.
We are evaluating environmental (Obj. 4.1) and educational (Obj. 4.2) interventions within the consumer-centric framework.
OBJ. 5. SCALE.
We will beta test work products (frameworks and models) in other states concerned with lead in water (Obj. 5.1) and are engaging with stakeholders in order to enhance the capabilities of the consumer-centric framework (Obj. 5.2).
Progress Summary:
OBJ. 1. INVENTORY.
O1.2: Collect data from communities
Well Water Testing in North Carolina
Post-hurricane sampling
Between February and September 2019, Virginia Tech and the UNC Institute for the Environment partnered with North Carolina local and state governments to provide free well water testing to private well users. A total of 1,148 well water samples were analyzed. The goal was to measure lead in drinking water from private wells, where well users are solely responsible for detecting and controlling water lead risks, while examining well water quality and recovery after Hurricanes Florence and Michael using emergency funds from the National Science Foundation.
Of the 1,148 homes sampled, 8.3% of first draw samples exceeded the US EPA lead action level of 15 μg/L which applies to regulated public water supplies. Elevated levels of copper above the US EPA copper action level of 1.3 mg/L were also observed in 11.8% of first draw samples. Although the US EPA Lead and Copper Rule does not apply to private wells, some of the higher levels of both lead and copper are concerning. Information about contaminants from household plumbing corrosion was assessed by letting the water sit stagnant for at least six hours, and then collecting the ‘first draw’ sample from the kitchen tap. After flushing water from the pipes for 5 minutes, less than 2% of homes had lead and copper concentrations above the action levels — this further confirms these contaminants were from plumbing and not from contaminated aquifers. In addition to water quality results, well users also filled out surveys detailing their well use habits, perceptions of their water quality, and demographic information.
These data are currently being used to examine the prevalence of testing and well stewardship behavior across socioeconomic status and race in the well community. Additionally, we are exploring the impact of taking a flushed water sample compared to a first draw sample, which is the current state protocol. These two manuscripts are expected to be finished by the end of 2022.
Health department survey
Drinking water supplied by private wells is a national concern that would benefit from improved outreach and support to ensure safe drinking water quality. In North Carolina (NC), local health departments (LHDs) have private well programs that enforce statewide well construction standards, offer water testing services, and provide well water outreach and assistance. Programs were evaluated to determine their capacity and capability for well water outreach and assistance and identify differences among programs. All LHDs reported overseeing the construction of new wells as required by law. However, services provided to existing well users were offered infrequently and/or inconsistently offered. Lack of uniformity was observed in the number of LHD staff and their assigned responsibilities; the costs and availability of well water testing; and the comfort of LHD staff communicating with well owners. While the total number of staff was lower in LHDs in rural counties, the number of outreach activities and services offered was typically not related to the number of well users served. Variations in structure and capacity of well programs at LHDs have created unequal access to services and information for well users in NC. This research underscores the need to examine infrastructure that supports the well water community on a national scale and has been published in Science of the Total Environment journal (Wait et al., 2020).
Well Water Testing in New York
Road salt fingerprinting
Increasing chloride concentrations in community water supplies across the United States have damaged premise plumbing, triggered sudden water lead contamination events, and even exceeded aesthetic standards for chloride. In the Northeast and Midwest, this rise in chloride levels has been attributed to an increased use of road salt, but rising chloride might also come from other sources including saltwater intrusion, hydrofracking, and water softener brine. To identify appropriate mitigation and management strategies, a method to identify the source of chloride in drinking water is needed. Studies have applied fingerprinting techniques to trace chloride to road salt in surface waters and groundwaters, but these techniques have not yet been applied to drinking water systems. The objectives of this study were to: 1) summarize fingerprinting techniques to identify chloride sourced from road salt, 2) apply these techniques to determine whether they work in drinking water supplied by private wells, 3) compare these results to an analysis of spatial and temporal chloride trends, and 4) examine the relationship between chloride and the metals in drinking water infrastructure that are vulnerable to corrosion.
Data for this study were collected during a citizen science sampling campaign in Orleans, NY. Between January to July 2018, Orleans residents collected a weekly first draw water sample from their kitchen tap. A total of 240 first draw samples were collected weekly and analyzed via ICP-MS. More than a third of the samples exceeded the 250 mg/L aesthetic standard for chloride throughout the study. Seasonal variations in chloride levels were evaluated and a median chloride level of 180 mg/L (maximum of 808 mg/L) was observed during the winter months while a median of 191 mg/L (maximum of 832 mg/L) was observed during the summer months. Although not statistically significant (one-tailed t-test, p=0.23), chloride levels decreased by an average of 5.4 mg/L from winter to summer months, a trend that is also consistent with road salt as a source. To further distinguish whether road salt is the source of chloride, 12 different fingerprinting techniques are being evaluated. Comparing the chloride to bromide mass ratio seen in drinking water to that of road salt appears to be the most promising fingerprinting technique thus far. Temporal and spatial in chloride levels will be explored, and relationships between chloride levels and lead and copper concentrations will be examined. Developing a technique to identify road salt contamination in drinking water is critical, because road salt levels are increasing nationally and becoming an emerging problem. Additional fingerprinting work will focus primarily on data from municipal systems. Follow-up sampling was conducted in this community in Summer of 2021 to compare water quality both before and after extension of the water line in the community. Specifically, this involved re-sampling homes to determine changes in water quality and usage as well as perception. We are also documenting a case where rising chloride triggered a sudden increase in water lead levels, without any other change in source water treatment. This research is expected to result in one to two journal articles that are in preparation.
Pre-post water line extension testing
This study builds directly on the analysis of Pieper et al. (2018), which analyzed chloride concentrations due to overapplication of road salts in groundwater and the resulting impact on private wells in Orleans, New York. The Town of Orleans is located along Route 12 near the St. Lawrence River in the heart of the Thousand Islands area in Upstate New York and is home to about 2,800 residents. By 2021, 500 Orleans household reliant on private wells were connected to the Alexandria Bay Water Utility. This project entailed new infrastructure to extend service to residents outside of Orleans included 3 miles of new water distribution system pipes, booster pumping station and water storage tank. We recruited 16 participants – 13 of which switched to the new municipal water source – to analyze changes in and tradeoffs between water quality, affordability and perception associated with transition from private well to municipal water. Data analysis is currently underway with a manuscript planned for Summer 2022.
Municipal System Testing in Illinois
In June 2018, our team conducted sequential sampling in Berwyn (3 single-family homes) and Cicero homes (3 single-family homes and 1 church) alongside the environmental justice organization Ixchel. We collected several liters of water per house after a 6+ hour stagnation period. Specifically, we collected 10 1-L samples at low flow rate (~2L/min) and 10 1-L samples at full flow rate. When possible, we also ascertained the service line material type with permission from the homeowner. The sampling showed all but one Berwyn home with persistently high levels of lead above 15 ppb over several minutes, and most of the lead was particulate. The highest lead detected was 141 ppb.
In August 2018, we conducted a citywide sampling using the Flint 3-bottle protocol (first draw, “45-second flush” second draw and “2-min flush” third draw). We sampled 83 homes and 2 churches, with 25 Berwyn homes and 51 Cicero homes. The 90th percentile first draw lead for Berwyn and Cicero were 10.2 ppb and 12.4 ppb respectively. The 90th percentile second draw lead was relatively the same in Berwyn (11.1 ppb) but increased slightly in Cicero (15.5 ppb). According to Illinois EPA, 85% of Berwyn homes and 98% of Cicero homes have lead service lines.
We also conducted citizen science sampling in 68 homes in Robbins, IL, but only one home had elevated lead (18.4 ppb), which was attributed to the presence of a lead pipe. The remaining 67 Robbins homes had extremely low water lead levels, suggesting the interaction of Chicago water with lead service lines, as observed in Cicero and Berwyn, is the primary cause for elevated water lead seen in Chicago suburbs.
In August 2019, we conducted a sampling campaign in Chicago (South Side) using the Flint 3-bottle protocol. We sampled 194 homes and found that the 90th percentile first draw lead was 8.7 ppb, less than in Cicero and Berwyn. However, the 90th percentile second draw sample was higher at 10.4 ppb and the highest lead level observed was 961.3, the highest in all the Chicago area homes that were tested. These results indicate that Chicago may be meeting the LCR, but results are nonetheless concerning because of the sustained 90th percentile lead levels in flushed samples. This is consistent with prior research of EPA Region V. These findings are expected to result in one to two journal articles that are in preparation.
On the basis of our analysis and documentation of EPA LCR sampling deficiencies, Illinois EPA issued violations to the City of Cicero. In an early 2019 meeting with Ixchel, U.S. EPA Region V and Illinois EPA, plans by the City of Chicago to optimize corrosion control were discussed, but did not materialize. Blended phosphate and orthophosphate corrosion inhibitors are being studied and tested as of March 2022 in efforts to reduce the lead in drinking water. This could potentially reduce lead levels throughout the City of Chicago and for its 100+ suburban wholesale customers. EPA Region V has asked the Cicero to conduct lead profile sampling, provide lead filters and prioritize lead pipe replacement in at-risk homes as of April 2022. The Berwyn Department of Health also solicited our help to test water lead in homes with children who have elevated blood lead levels.
Louisiana Citizen Science Datasets
Citizen science datasets in Louisiana were generated in collaboration with community partners. These included data on water lead levels, lead service line indicates (age of installation), water quality, and survey data such as water use, treatment, and risk perceptions. This data, in addition to utility-based data on corrosion control treatment use, is being incorporated into the BBN models.
Massachusetts Lead in School Drinking Water
Data from the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Quality detailing lead in schools was analyzed to determine whether the proposed 5-sample technique, outlined in the LCR Revisions, is adequate for characterizing lead in school drinking water. We observed that 12% of fixtures had first draw lead >15 ppb and 3% after a 30 s flushing. Approximately 90% of fixtures with lead >15 ppb were clustered in 34% of schools. We determined a school-wide 90th percentile of 10 ppb closely approximated this clustering of problem fixtures and were able to identify schools with problem fixtures using the five-sample results with a confidence >90%. Fixtures releasing lead >1 ppb occurred in >90% of schools and represented 58% of first draws and 33% of 30-s flushed samples. Overall, our study provides an approach to classify a school’s lead risk, which could help water utilities and schools prioritizing testing and remediation efforts. This work was recently published in Environmental Science and Technology Letters (Rome et al., 2022) as an ACS Editor’s Choice article.
O1.3: Crowdsource knowledge of lead in water levels, lead bearing plumbing, patterns of water use and treatment systems, and perceptions of water quality
Website Development
A website (http://crowdthetap.org/ or https://scistarter.org/form/crowd-the-tap) was developed where citizen scientists can input data about their tap water pipes, connect with resources about finding their pipes, and communicate in a forum. We have developed instructions and protocols for Crowd the Tap so that volunteer can crowdsource information on lead bearing plumbing and perceptions of water quality. Data collection from citizen scientists has reached 2,300 unique responses and will continue until December 2022.
Citizen Science Kit Development
Crowd the Tap pipe identification kits were created, which contain postcards that have descriptions of where to find tap water pipes along with materials used to test tap water pipes (i.e. penny and magnet). These kits will be used by citizen scientists to find and test their tap water pipes, and then report the results to an online website and database. An estimated 200 pipe identification kits were distributed to Citizen Science Festival visitors.
A part-time community engagement specialist position revealed challenges of engaging underrepresented communities. We are attempting to overcome this challenge in partnership with the National Library of Medicine (NLM). NLM is producing loanable kits to 500 public libraries across the United States and these kits include Crowd the Tap instructions. The NLM kits were to be in libraries in April 2020 for Citizen Science Month, but the COVID-19 pandemic delayed this program. In addition, high school lesson plans are in development/pilot testing for teachers of grades 9-12 to allow kits to be used by high school students during Citizen Science Month.
To accomplish these tasks, funds were reallocated after departure of a post doc, included hiring a part-time Community Engagement Specialist, hiring an education consultant to help with lesson plans for teaching for using Crowd the Tap with students, hiring a PhD student to pull public data on lead service line distribution, and finally, purchasing supplies for Crowd the Tap kits. Further, funds were moved towards travel to a few conferences to present about Crowd the Tap. Further reallocation of budget funds may be needed as we see what works and what does not work.
Approximately 1,300 households across the US have contributed data about service line and home plumbing materials to Crowd the Tap. Approximately 600 households have contributed data about pipes and simple water chemistry with 14-1 strips. In spring 2021, twelve undergraduate student ambassadors and at least one teacher ambassador collectively arranged for approximately 165 homes to complete data entry in Crowd the Tap, water chemistry testing with 14-1 strips, and 3-bottle water collection for testing in the VT lab. We are using these data for Obj 1 and Obj 2.
Biosolids Monitoring
In 2018-20, we conducted research that used biosolids monitoring to retroactively evaluate levels of lead in Flint water before, during and after the water crisis (Roy et al., Water Research, 2019) and further tracked lead in Flint potable water during the recovery due to enhanced corrosion control chemical dosing and replacement of lead service lines (Roy and Edwards, ESWRT, 2020). Due to our success in using this approach, we are expanding this analysis to trends in Providence, RI; Portland, OR; Chicago, IL; Newark, NJ; and Toronto, Canada to further evaluate this method. Preliminary findings were presented at the AWWA Annual Conference and Exposition 2021, where our research poster won first prize in two categories (Odimayomi et al., 2021).
OBJ. 2. PREDICT.
O2.1: Develop a BBN model of household-level citizen risk
Background on Methodology: Bayesian Belief Network and Ensemble of Decision Trees
The Bayesian Belief Network (BBN) is at the core of our machine learning analytics. It is a probabilistic directed acyclic graphical model, which represents the dependencies among the subset of attributes via directed arcs. A joint probability table is associated with each arc to explain the probabilistic relationship of the connected attributes. A BBN model is constructed from two components: 1) Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG), which is the structure of BBN and shows the topology of network, and 2) Conditional Probability Table (CPT), which is the parameter set of a BBN and is learned from a specific DAG. In this research, we seek a BBN model that fits water quality data to classify positive lead samples with the highest accuracy. We also apply a machine learning approach in this research to provide a baseline comparison. A decision tree is an expanding structure of nodes with the application of binary splits. Each node represents a predictor variable, and splits are formed by using an inequality condition. The performance of a split is evaluated through the Gini index, which measures the diversity of the data until a terminal node is reached. An Ensemble of Decision Trees (EDT) can be built using boosting or bootstrap aggregation (bagging) techniques. In this research, the EDT was built using a boosting algorithm called Random Undersampling Boosting (RUS). RUS is an algorithm designed to cope with the problem of imbalanced data, where one class size outnumbers the rest of classes. The number of trees, the depth of each tree, and the learning rate are among the required settings to define an EDT. The number of trees expands the ensemble horizontally and the higher this number is, the more computational time is required. Similarly, the depth of each tree is controlled by the maximum number of splits and high values add complexity to the model. Finally, the learning rate refers to the step size of each iteration during the learning phase. Due to the infinite number of settings combinations, a Bayesian optimization process was performed to find the most suitable combination of settings and maximize the accuracy of the model.
Household-level Citizen Risk Model:
During Year #2, we concluded our analysis using the BBN for a set of private water system data. Approximately 2100 water samples at drinking tap water were collected from private water systems (e.g., wells, springs) by VAHWQP between 2012 and 2014 in Virginia. We developed a knowledge discovery framework to explore different discretization methods, feature selection methods, and Bayes classifiers for building a BBN model. Completion of this work identified the different methods that will be used in building BBNs. We completed a manuscript describing this research, published in January 2021 (Fasaee et al., 2021).
During Year #3 we expanded the development of the BBN to use a total of approximately 8000 water samples that were collected by the VAHWQP between 2012 and 2017. We applied the BBN and EDT methods to develop household-level citizen risk models for the dataset. We explored predictors, including low-resolution water quality data, survey responses, and household characteristics. We demonstrated that low resolution water quality data is valuable to improve predictability of BBN models and EDT models, when no other water quality data is available. We found that the EDT approach generates models with lower error than the BBN approach. As an outcome of this work, we developed a model that has been implemented on the website for further validation and testing. We are preparing a manuscript describing this work, which is currently under review (Fasaee et al., under review).
The final research task associated with this goal will be to apply the model for a dataset of approximately 1000 water quality samples taken at private water systems in North Carolina. In this task, which will be completed in Year #4, we will assess the performance of the models that were developed for wells in Virginia for a new dataset and test the validity of the models for new locations.
GIS-Enabled BBN Community Model:
During Year #2, we began exploration of the community model. First, we collected publicly available data about Flint lead levels and household characteristics. We created a database to integrate diverse datasets. We explored clustering algorithms that will be used in developing a GIS-enabled model that will predict community-level risk of high water lead levels. We expanded the application of the BBN and EDT models to apply the models for data from New Orleans, LA. Data from New Orleans was collected at households with lead service lines. The data set includes some household characteristics and laboratory water quality data.
During Year #3, we explored methods for extending the BBN and EDT models for municipal systems to develop community models. The Household-level Citizen Risk Model has been developed using data from private systems (primarily wells), and we worked with collaborators to expand the Crowd the Tap platform to collect low-resolution water quality data through at-home water quality testing. We developed protocols for receiving photographs of at-home water quality test results (similar to pH strips) and developed pattern recognition approaches to read photographs and report values for water quality parameters.
In Year #4, we will receive results collected from citizen scientists through Crowd the Tap of at-home water quality tests and laboratory-tested water quality tests. We will quantify the error in at-home water quality tests and represent error in input variables (e.g., water quality parameters, such as copper, pH, and hardness) for the BBN and EDT models. This analysis will quantify the effects of measurement error associated with low-resolution water quality tests on the capabilities of the BBN and EDT models for predicting lead at households.
O2.4: Develop a scalable information technology (IT) platform
Planning and development of our team’s main website, including functionality needs and security requirements, has been completed. Documents presenting website layout and preliminary content, metadata templates for documents and data, and surveys have been completed. A preliminary website has been developed. The BBN model has been integrated into the website. Further review and edits will be made pending finalization of the initial BBN interactive website and outreach materials. The main website exposes an API that allows other websites to communicate with the BBN predictive model.
OBJ. 3. EVALUATE.
O3.1: Evaluate low-cost citizen science lead in water testing technologies
The utility and accuracy of off-the-shelf lead in water test kits as screening tools for lead in water was evaluated at the laboratory scale. Specifically, we investigated if these test kits can (1) detect high soluble lead in water, (2) accurately measure 15 ppb soluble lead in water, (3) detect particulate lead in water, and (4) were subject to other artifacts from co-contaminants such as iron.
Test kits were selected based on an Amazon search for “water lead test kit” performed on May 9, 2018. This search yielded 347 results, 122 of which were products related to lead testing. Within these 122 results, there were 34 unique products with costs from $0.10 to $39.95 per test, including: 1 colorimetric vial test, 1 spectrophotometric test, 8 mail away tests, 8 positive/negative test strip type tests, and 16 color change test strip type tests. This effort focuses primarily on at-home kits and, therefore, excluded the spectrophotometric test and mail away tests from testing. Four types of at-home test kits were considered for this experiment including a colorimetric vial test, color change test strip type tests, a positive/negative color change test, and positive/negative line tests analogous to at-home pregnancy tests.
A tiered sampling approach was used to determine test kit effectiveness. The first tier tested the overall effectiveness of tests using dissolved lead at low, then high, drinking water concentrations of lead. The second tier investigated the potential for false negative and false positive results using various types of particulate lead. The potential for particle dissolution and improved detection was investigated using at-home acid treatment with lemon juice and vinegar. Finally, the effects of different phosphate-based corrosion control treatments on test kit detection of lead from a lead solder/copper pipe coupon were investigated.
Four test kits accurately detected the high dissolved lead (150 ppb) in Tier 1 including three positive/negative line tests and one color change vial test. All other test kits failed to measure lead in the drinking water, either by detecting no lead or measuring more lead than was present. Therefore, the three positive/negative line tests and the color change vial test will proceed to Tier 1b (low dissolved), while other kits were then tested with extreme particulate lead. None of the color change tests detected the extremely high particulate lead (50 ppm from 50:50 lead:tin solder), and were eliminated from further testing. The vial test did not accurately detect just above and below the 15 ppb dissolved lead and was also eliminated from further testing. However, the positive/negative line tests did detect lead near and above 15 ppb dissolved lead and were therefore tested with a variety of real world lead particles. Although positive/negative strips did not detect leaded particles in water alone, dissolution and detection were improved upon treatment with lemon juice and vinegar. Further, results indicate that kits may be ineffective at detecting lead in the presence of orthophosphate-based corrosion control due to low dissolved and total lead below the 15 ppb detection threshold. The low total lead in these orthophosphate cases also made at-home acid dissolution efforts ineffective at detecting these low levels of lead. Overall, the positive/negative test strips were determined to be effective at detecting dissolved lead above their 15 ppb detection threshold and may detect particulate lead upon dissolution following at-home acid treatment. A manuscript describing these findings was published in Environmental Science and Technology in January 2021 (Kriss et al., 2021). The most effective test strip, the positive/negative test strip, was chosen for further investigation in a field study. The goals of this ongoing work are to (1) determine the field accuracy of the positive/negative at-home test strip, (2) determine whether residents can use test kits to correctly identify the presence or absence of lead in their drinking water, and (3) determine resident confidence using the test kits. Test kits were tested using citizen science sampling in two regions: a community in Pennsylvania suspected of having lead in water problems and by residents across the state of Iowa.
In order to achieve the objectives, residents were given a sampling kit to collect water for laboratory testing. In addition, residents were asked to test both their own water sample and a blind lead standard using the at-home test kit. This design ensured that some residents would test standards above and below the test concentration threshold, in case lead concentrations in tap water samples were low or in case of interferences in real waters. Further, residential tap water samples were also tested in the laboratory by researchers to compare residential test kit readings to those obtained by more experienced personnel. Sampling was conducted from January to June of 2021 and has been completed with 210 sampling kits returned across these two communities. Results will be presented in a manuscript that is expected to be completed by December 2022.
Crowd the Tap plans to field test the most effective at-home test kit using the lemon juice addition protocol in coordination with 30 high school teachers in cities with concerns about lead in drinking water. Approximately 600 citizen scientists completed Crowd the Tap data entry about pipe materials for their households, along with the 14-1 chemistry strips and at-home test kit with lemon juice protocols. In Spring 2021, twelve undergraduate student ambassadors and at least one teacher ambassador collectively arranged for approximately 165 homes to complete data entry in Crowd the Tap, water chemistry testing with 14-1 strips, and 3-bottle water testing. The results are currently being analyzed and we expect one journal publication in late 2022.
Evaluate low-cost citizen science tests for copper in water and copper reduction strategies
Pieper et al. (2015) demonstrated correlations between copper and lead contamination in well water with brass plumbing. Synergistic citizen science approaches may be feasible for using at-home copper test kits to help residents detect copper problems and potentially identify waters at risk of causing lead problems. This is particularly important as homes are renovated or lead service lines are replaced with new copper, potentially leading to copper problems along with remaining lead issues from existing pieces of service lines, leaded solder, or brass. Further, it is expected that at-home test kits may detect copper more readily due to the higher copper concentrations often found in drinking water.
In order to help address potential copper problems, we sought to determine water chemistries that are aggressive or non-aggressive to copper based on a variety of water quality criteria including pH, alkalinity, orthophosphate dose, and natural organic matter concentration. These criteria could then be used in the development of guidance for both utilities and residents for copper detection and mitigation. The effects of additional water quality parameters on cuprosolvency are also being considered, including sulfate and silica concentrations. At-home test kit results for copper and water quality parameters such as pH and alkalinity could potentially serve as inputs to a residential framework to help residents detect copper and determine potential effective mitigation strategies.
A variety of residential level tests were evaluated including color tile test strips, liquid color change tests and residential level spectrophotometers. Tests were evaluated in the laboratory to determine practical quantitation limits, allowing identification of promising tests. The tests were then evaluated in the field by a resident-partner. The resident previously confirmed high copper levels in their drinking water using laboratory testing and agreed to do further testing using test kits and to send samples to the laboratory for comparison. Further, this resident also agreed to test multiple potential residence level interventions including a pH-amendment system, a granular activated carbon filter and a reverse osmosis system and periodically send samples for laboratory analysis to determine interventions that could lead to protective scale formation in their copper pipes. These strategies are being carried out in conjunction with laboratory scale testing using their water to compare laboratory tests to field intervention results. Overall, this work will facilitate the development of residential level copper detection and mitigation guidance, ideally based on at-home test kit inputs of copper and water quality criteria, to help residents determine appropriate interventions. A similar strategy could potentially be extended to address lead problems using at-home test kits for lead and other water quality parameters including copper. This work is expected to be completed by Fall 2022 and will result in three journal publications.
OBJ. 4. INTERVENE.
O4.1: Evaluate environmental interventions
Environmental interventions were evaluated through reviews of the literature, technical documents, and case studies. Interventions were assessed in terms of WLL reduction; short- and long-term costs and sustainability; barriers and impediments to adoption and use; conditions under which interventions are expected to be effective and ineffective; limitations and strengths; and short- and long-term expected environmental impacts and consequences. A journal article presenting the cost-benefits, strengths and limitations of interventions as well as guidelines for appropriate use conditions has been published (Pieper et al., JWH, 2019). Interventions evaluated include: 1) low-cost point of use systems (POU); 2) corrosion control treatment (including those in homes such as limestone contactors); 3) flushing; 4) full and partial service line replacements; and 5) provision of other water sources like bottled water and water buffalos. Prior research on the effectiveness of flushing has been published through a Louisiana State Board of Regents grant. Data collected to assess water lead levels prior to and after partial lead service line replacements was published online (https://sph.lsuhsc.edu/research/programs/lead-study/preliminary-results/).
NSF-certified filters were evaluated in the field and in the lab at Virginia Tech. The most cost-effective filters identified by VA Tech’s lab studies were evaluated further via field-testing in Enterprise and New Orleans, LA, towns which posed varying water quality challenges (high iron and low iron, respectively). Further, an article evaluating factors impacting filter adoption based on surveys and interviews conducted in New Orleans and Enterprise, LA has been submitted for publication. A separate paper discussing water challenges, change catalysts and citizen-centric approaches to water system support, oversight and enforcement is expected to be completed in late 2022.
O4.2: Evaluate educational interventions
A project-based educational curriculum for elementary and grade schools, which was developed through a grant from the US EPA Environmental Education Program, was evaluated and updated with funds from this US EPA grant. In order to accomplish this, toolkits and strategies were developed and refined for communities to initiate citizen science efforts around the issue of lead in drinking water, to help those with the desire but who lack resources and implementation knowledge. This curriculum was tested in two inner-city high schools (Lusher Charter, The Net Charter), an inner-city summer program (Urban Conservancy’s BASIN Program), and two inner- city elementary schools (Phyllis Wheatley Elementary, Homer A Plessy Elementary School). Feedback from school teachers and students was used to revise each lesson plan accordingly.
These lesson plans, which include project-based and multi-disciplinary exercises focused on addressing lead in drinking water issues, have been made available online (https://sph.lsuhsc.edu/research/programs/lead-study/educational-products/). Based on feedback, we extended the curriculum with an additional lesson plan on air quality, specifically air sampling around Interstate-10. A journal article evaluating the curriculum and implementation was published in Journal of the Louisiana Public Health Association. (Peluso et al., 2021). Further, two consumer-centric materials presenting population-specific educational needs, intervention strategies, and consumer guidance materials for addressing knowledge gaps, motivating exposure reduction behaviors, and enabling informed-decision making were developed and published online (https://leanweb.org/citizens-guide/your-water).
Videos were also produced in response to user needs and survey feedback which guide users through the use of several online databases and models. These videos will be posted to the website of the Louisiana Environmental Action Network (LEAN), a major go-to community-run website for communities with environmental issues (https://leanweb.org/). These videos help consumers a) access drinking water data from the EPA, LA Dept. of Health’s Safe Drinking Water Program, and Environmental Working Group (EWG) websites, and b) find the most appropriate water treatment system for their specific water quality issues using EWG and NSF International websites.
A second set of videos outside of the drinking water realm were produced based on feedback from local citizens. The videos center around the theme of “Fighting Injustice: Advocacy Tools for Community Self Empowerment” and include the following: (1) “Local Water Quality Data and Choosing the Best Water Filtration System for You”, (2) “Understanding Wastewater Discharge Permits”, (3) “EDMS Basics” (statewide database which includes data and information on Louisiana pollution sources); (4) “Denka Case Study”, (5) “Incidents”, (6) “Settlements”, (7) “Warning Letters”, and (8-9) “Air Permits and Air Monitoring Units”. The videos are currently available online (https://vimeo.com/user/101465957/folder/9622917).
OBJ. 5. SCALE.
O5.2: Engage with stakeholders to enhance the capabilities of the consumer-centric framework
Well Community
Opportunities to participate in educational programs and seek technical assistance from experts are necessary to ensure well stewardship, which legally remains the sole responsibility of well users. In states with robust Cooperative Extension Service support, Extension has proven to be one of the most successful platforms for engaging, empowering, and educating private well users. Cooperative Extension Service personnel are trusted sources of science-based information in their communities, including educating identification of resources for protecting family health and groundwater quality. However, there is no established network for these Extension platforms to engage and share knowledge and resources. In October 2018, Extension programs from 12 states participated in a 2-day meeting at NC State. The states included: Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Virginia. Participants from Maine, Rhode Island, and Vermont were not able to attend. The purpose of this meeting was to (1) understand function and capacity of existing/successful programs; (2) identify barriers to and conditions for success/best practices for new programs; (3) develop resources and guidelines to address common well water problems; and (4) design metrics to evaluate Extension programming.
Municipal Systems
We have already developed a sampling kit, sampling instructions, and participant notification materials for conveying results and risk to participants to be used in Iowa sampling in the project beta testing. In October 2019 during Lead Poisoning Prevention Week we ran a drinking water “Get the Lead Out” campaign in Iowa that tested over 250 drinking water samples in Iowa. This work was funded in part through cost-sharing funds and through other related projects with other funding sources. This work continued in 2020 and 2021 as part of this project with ~ 600 drinking water samples tested across Iowa.
This work will be scaled up even further in the next five years as additional funding has been awarded to Iowa from the 2021 Healthy Homes Technical Studies Grant Awards to scale this project to work with HUD Healthy Homes Grantees and the Iowa Department of Public Health to reach more of Iowa’s communities. More specifically, the University of Iowa in collaboration with Michigan State University and Virginia Tech has been awarded $700,000 to study data-based tools and implementation practices to assess drinking water as a potential contributor of lead exposure. The study objectives are to: (1) build an assessment tool using data from Flint, MI, such as a water lead risk score, to identify Flint homes that had a high risk of water-lead contamination; (2) adapt and generalize the water lead risk assessment tool to be more widely applicable to other communities; and (3) partner with public health agencies and grantees of HUD’s Office of Lead Hazard Control and Healthy Homes to further validate and promote using the water lead assessment tool to identify high-risk homes and residents, connect them to lead mitigation and public health promotion resources, and provide guidance on possible water-based intervention strategies. The second phase of the study will involve testing the tool using housing data in Iowa.
Future Activities:
Due to the Covid-19 outbreak, we requested and were granted a 1-year no cost extension. The outbreak caused our laboratories and offices to be shut down, delaying progress on all objectives.
Objective 1.1: Collect and review existing data and literature
The LSLR Collaborative is conducting a national review of all service line data sources. We will work with them to merge our database with theirs. Other data sources such as USGS groundwater data are being evaluated for integration in the BBN and better characterizing corrosion in small systems with limited treatment options.
Objective 1.2: Collect data from communities
Two manuscripts describing water sampling and lead fingerprinting from North Carolina and Orleans NY community studies are ongoing and expected to be completed by end of 2022.
Objective 1.3: Collect crowdsourced knowledge of lead in water levels, lead bearing plumbing, patterns of water use and treatment systems, and perceptions of water quality.
Data collected from citizen scientists via Crowd the Tap are being analyzed for links between demographics, pipe materials, and accessibility of mitigation options. A citizen science kit distribution program in partnership with the National Library of Medicine is continuing and completion of the 9th-12th grade high school lesson plans and kit programs will continue in an effort to get underrepresented groups engaged with the Crowd the Tap crowdsource program. During the final year of the grant, we plan to field test the most promising at-home lead in water test kit with the lemon juice addition protocol. This will be tested in 30 high school classes in cities with concerns about lead in drinking water. The goal is for 960 students to complete Crowd the Tap data entry about pipe materials for their households, and test water with the 14-1 chemistry strips and lemon juice/at-home test strip protocols. About 1/3 of these students will also complete the 3-bottle sampling protocol and send them for lab analysis. To support the teachers, we are expanding the Crowd the Tap curriculum and an outreach coordinator will train teachers.
Objectives 2.1-2.3 Develop Bayesian Belief Network (BBN) model of household-level citizen risk; expand BBN to GIS-enabled BBN model; and conduct scenario analysis Future activities will explore the BBN and EDT approaches with application for new datasets, including additional data from private wells collected in Virginia and North Carolina and data from municipal systems, including New Orleans, LA and Flint, MI. Model capabilities will be explored relative to private and municipal systems. We will also explore alternative sets of predictor variables, or attributes, and how they affect the classification of risk of lead. We will explore how models perform for survey data alone and for increasing levels of information provided through pH, hardness, and commonly available water quality parameters. Models applied for municipal systems will be further extended to predict community levels of lead exposure. In Year #4, we plan to focus efforts on completing publications around the household-level risk model and to further develop the community-level risk model for municipal systems using data collected through Crowd the Tap.
Objective 2.4: Develop a scalable information technology (IT) platform
Website content will include BBN integration into a results and interpretation page and a portal to access all outreach materials. A database to house water measurement data, and construction of the back-end and front-end of model interface is currently being developed. The BBN testing and website evaluation began in 2021 and a final version following internal peer review is expected to be completed by Summer 2022. Finally, the public version of the website with incorporation of the BBN model functionality and citizen-centric content and functionality, is expected to be ready for public beta testing in the Summer 2022.
Objective 3.1: Evaluate low-cost citizen science lead in water testing technologies
Laboratory and field testing of at-home test kits for copper and other water quality parameters are ongoing. This testing will be in conjunction with field and laboratory test methods for cuprosolvency and testing of resident-level interventions to mitigate copper problems. This work will be used to help develop resident level guidance for copper detection and mitigation using inputs of at-home test kit data. Due to correlations between lead and copper arising from brass as well as synergies between at-home test kit testing, it is hoped that these results may have helpful implications for detecting and mitigating lead in drinking water as well. Three publications are anticipated from these efforts by end of 2022.
Objective 3.2: Utilize testing technologies to evaluate BBN models
Validation of the BBN model with field data will begin once the internal testing of BBN model with the partners’ existing database has been completed. Following completion of the household-level citizen risk model, we will recruit participants to test the model by entering their relevant data and information, running the model, and documenting their risk output. Volunteers will also be asked to provide feedback on the user interface, resources provided on the website, risk messaging, ease of data input, and model runs, and to identify how the system can be made into a more valuable resource for impacted communities. This information will be used to improve the user interface and content.
The evaluation and validation of the BBN model as well as obtaining consumer feedback to improve the model and user interface has been delayed due to their dependency on the final BBM model and user interface. Model development and website feedback is an iterative process which has already commenced and for which we continue to get feedback on as the site develops. Greater emphasis will be placed on website feedback as other states and communities are pulled into the project and as the site expands. Instead, more emphasis has been placed on gathering information and data on consumer barriers, educational needs and developing a citizen-centric toolkit to empower and inform communities. This process will result in four journal articles as well as outreach materials.
Objective 4.1-4.2: Evaluate environmental and educational interventions
We are evaluating information from communities captured using surveys, focus groups, and semi-structured interviews to enable characterization of factors such as educational needs and information gaps (e.g., knowledge of information request procedures, POU filter selection, understanding of responsibilities of both consumers and utilities). A paper summarizing part of this work is also under peer review in Journal of Health Promotion Practice.
Objective 5.1: Beta test work products (frameworks and models) in other states
Community partners in Iowa and Texas will apply our framework and work products, recruiting consumers to participate in crowdsourced inventories, water testing, and use of the model, providing a feedback loop to those efforts. It will also identify barriers to community outreach, motivation, and product dissemination when the methods are applied beyond those involved on the core research team.
Objective 5.2: Engage with stakeholders in order to enhance the capabilities of the consumer-centric framework.
LSUHSC conducted key stakeholder interviews with public advocates involved in the water struggles in Enterprise, LA, and New Orleans, LA to document the challenges, barriers, and needs of the community to get their voices heard and their water problems addressed. A journal paper summarizing these results is anticipated to be completed by Fall 2022.
Journal Articles on this Report : 9 Displayed | Download in RIS Format
Other project views: | All 56 publications | 13 publications in selected types | All 13 journal articles |
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Roy S, Mosteller K, Mosteller M, Webber K, Webber V, Webber S, Reid L, Walter L, Edwards MA. Citizen science chlorine surveillance during the Flint, Michigan federal water emergency. Water Research 2021:117304 |
CR839375 (2018) CR839375 (2020) CR839375 (2021) |
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Roy S, Tang M, Edwards MA. Lead release to potable water during the Flint, Michigan water crisis as revealed by routine biosolids monitoring data. Water research 2019;160:475-83. |
CR839375 (2019) CR839375 (2020) CR839375 (2021) |
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Roy S, Edwards MA. Preventing another lead (Pb) in drinking water crisis:Lessons from the Washington DC and Flint MI contamination events. Current Opinion in Environmental Science & Health 2019;7:34-44. |
CR839375 (2019) CR839375 (2020) CR839375 (2021) |
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Pieper KJ, Katner A, Kriss R, Tang M, Edwards MA. Understanding lead in water and avoidance strategies:a United States perspective for informed decision-making. Journal of water and health 2019;17(4):540-55. |
CR839375 (2019) CR839375 (2020) CR839375 (2021) |
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Kriss R, Pieper KJ, Parks J, Edwards MA. Challenges of detecting lead in drinking water using at-home test kits. Environmental Science & Technology 2021;55(3):1964-72. |
CR839375 (2021) |
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Fasaee MA, Berglund E, Pieper KJ, Ling E, Benham B, Edwards M. Developing a framework for classifying water lead levels at private drinking water systems:A Bayesian Belief Network approach. Water Research 2021;189:116641. |
CR839375 (2021) |
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Rome M, Estes-Smargiassi S, Masters SV, Roberson A, Tobiason JE, Beighley RE, Pieper KJ. Using the Lead and Copper Rule Revisions Five-Sample Approach to Identify Schools with Increased Lead in Drinking Water Risks. Environmental Science & Technology Letters 2021;9(1):84-9. |
CR839375 (2021) |
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Roy S, Edwards MA. Are there excess fetal deaths attributable to waterborne lead exposure during the Flint Water Crisis? Evidence from bio-kinetic model predictions and Vital Records. Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology 2022;32(1):17-26. |
CR839375 (2021) |
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Huang H, Wang Q, He X, Wu Y, Xu C. Association between polyfluoroalkyl chemical concentrations and leucocyte telomere length in US adults. Science of the Total Environment 2019;653:547-53. |
CR839375 (2021) |
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Supplemental Keywords:
Lead, drinking water, corrosion, citizen science, environmental justiceProgress 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.