Grantee Research Project Results

2023 Progress Report: Building Resilience in Vulnerable Older Adult Communities Facing Increased Exposure Risks to Wastewater Contamination from Flooding in Puerto Rico

EPA Grant Number: R840040
Title: Building Resilience in Vulnerable Older Adult Communities Facing Increased Exposure Risks to Wastewater Contamination from Flooding in Puerto Rico
Investigators: Ikuma, Kaoru , Rehmann, Chris , Poleacovschi, Cristina , Weems, Carl , Zambrana, Ivis Garcia
Current Investigators: Ikuma, Kaoru
Institution: Iowa State University
EPA Project Officer: Aja, Hayley
Project Period: August 1, 2020 through July 31, 2023 (Extended to July 31, 2024)
Project Period Covered by this Report: August 1, 2022 through July 31,2023
Project Amount: $800,000
RFA: Contaminated Sites, Natural Disasters, Changing Environmental Conditions and Vulnerable Communities: Research to Build Resilience (2019) RFA Text | Recipients Lists
Research Category: Safer Chemicals , Sustainable and Healthy Communities

Objective:

The objective of this study is to gather data that will aid in building resilience in vulnerable populations against contamination risks posed by flooding. Our underlying hypothesis is that even in vulnerable older adult communities exposed to natural disasters and resulting contamination, community-based risk reduction efforts can significantly decrease risk and increase the resilience of such populations especially when factors such as psychosocial vulnerabilities and the built environment are taken into consideration. Specifically, we are interested in improving our scientific understanding of how flooding results in elevated exposure risks to wastewater-related contaminants among older adults (Objective 1), determining what secondary/modifying psychosocial variables affect the vulnerability of older adults to risk posed by contaminant exposure (Objective 2), and learning how to build resilience in vulnerable communities with older adults by connecting the information gathered in the previous objectives (Objective 3).

Progress Summary:

Objective 1
Modeling of flooding and contamination was conducted using MIKE+ software (DHI) for the Loíza, Puerto Rico municipality. Specifically, we simulated the effects of storm surge due to hurricane-like winds on the spread of wastewater contamination from the ocean outfall of the discharge from the local wastewater treatment plant. Contaminants such as Escherichia coli were predicted to be detectable at concentrations above recreational water regulatory limits in areas of Loiza that could lead to exposure. The most vulnerable area, unsurprisingly, was the houses closest to the shore. In addition, we found that informal wastewater containment systems, which are widely used in this city, were not major sources of wastewater contaminants in floodwaters.

Objective 2
Door-to-door surveys and interviews were conducted in three cities in Puerto Rico, focusing on their trust and behaviors towards drinking water. In Puerto Rico, a considerable portion of the population is wary of the quality of tap water provided by PRASA; in our data collection efforts, we found that 64% of respondents expressed skepticism towards tap water. We categorized residents based on their trust and consumption patterns, shedding light on the factors that influence their water-drinking decisions, as follows:

Residents that mistrust and do not drink tap water: influenced primarily by aesthetics of tap water.
Residents that mistrust and do drink tap water: various reasons such as convenience and dependence on others (for bottled water) drove these respondents to drink tap water even though they perceived their water to have suboptimal quality.
Residents that trust and do drink tap water: their confidence was largely attributed to their longstanding good experiences.
Residents that trust and do not drink tap water: tap water avoidance was driven by convenience of bottled water or family pressure.

Future Activities:

In Year 4, we will conduct workshops (Objective 3) with older adult community members from Loíza and beyond to brainstorms ways of using the data to plan interventions for building resilience in the vulnerable, older adult populations within the community.

Journal Articles:

No journal articles submitted with this report: View all 5 publications for this project

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.