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Community engagement and perceptions of targeted and non-targeted chemicals of concern for municipal wastewater reuse onto human food crops
Citation:
Nichols, E., M. Hedgespeth, J. Delborne, D. Rashash, S. Brecht, M. Strynar, AND D. Shea. Community engagement and perceptions of targeted and non-targeted chemicals of concern for municipal wastewater reuse onto human food crops. SETAC Europe 30th Annual Meeting, Dublin, IRELAND, May 03 - 07, 2020.
Impact/Purpose:
Prior efforts to implement local water reuse strategies have often failed due to lack of civic engagement and effective science communication with local communities. Increased pressures on water resources for agriculture will require water reuse systems in the future; however, water reuse may pose potential human health risk due to identifiable and non-identifiable chemicals of concern. Targeted and nontargeted analytical chemistry methods have demonstrated the presence of such chemicals in treated wastewater, and consequently, water that may be reused for other purposes. Nontargeted analytical chemistry methods rely on information contained within chemical databases - as this information continues to expand, the ability to identify chemicals with confidence increases. However, for the public, the term “chemical” is often a trigger for concern in itself. We suggest that communication of nontargeted analysis results to the public is more impactful through participatory engagement of the public with scientists and other key experts.
Description:
This project used participatory science, high-resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS) suspect-screening approaches, and surveys of community participants to understand community perceptions of municipal wastewater irrigation onto human food crops. The technical team, in collaboration with the City of Jacksonville, North Carolina (USA), monitored organic chemicals of concern in wastewater and on-site/off-site surface waters and groundwater for a municipal land application system. The 2,900 hectare land application system irrigates 810 hectares of forest with secondary-treated municipal wastewater year around at total wastewater volumes equivalent to normal annual rainfall for the site. The social science team engaged with city residents and farmers adjacent to the land treatment systems on the science of HRMS suspect-screening analyses, risk analysis for decision-making, and monitoring results of known and unknown chemical features for monitored waters. This presentation will summarize the technical HRMS findings of off-site and on-site waters since 2017 and also present social science findings of community engagement dynamics between HRMS experts and community participants over the last three years. Technical experts gained valuable input from community participants on the efficacy of HRMS public science communication, participant perceptions of HRMS information for decision-making, and participants’ views of how HRMS information could be used for future decision-making to gain community acceptance of irrigating human food crops with municipal wastewater.
