1. Environmental Justice and Emerging Contaminants in the Cape Fear and Neuse River Basins
Chrissy Garwood, Luke Griffin, Eric Mai, Alex Mebane, Hannah Smith, William Tingen, Joe Young, and Dr. Andrew George
Curriculum of Environment and Ecology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Conclusions
Introduction
Carcinogenic and toxic compounds are manufactured within NC by Dupont. These unregulated compounds are released into municipal wastewater systems and rivers. Perfluorinated compounds have widespread health effects in small doses. PFOA (C8) is linked to ulcerative colitis, as well as kidney and testicular cancers. Literature shows that socially vulnerable communities are placed at disproportionate risk for harmful environmental exposure.
Results
-we might be able to fit another map (i.e. minority population) in results
-should we include asterisks for our bar chart?
-is there a way to make the font smaller than 6? Even at 6 it takes up a lot of space
No predictable pattern of contamination was found based on 4 SES metrics. The hypothesis predicted increased contamination in socially vulnerable areas, but this study found ubiquitous contamination of perfluorinated compounds, toxic plastics, and heavy metals in Cape Fear and Neuse drinking water systems.
Although PFCs analyzed by minority and low-income produced relatively high R2 values ( and , respectively), this was likely a spurious correlation. Only 8 WTPs were contaminated with PFCs over the MRL, and this low sample size likely skewed the analysis.
Nearly ubiquitous contamination at unknown levels below the MRL calls for better analytical instruments. Additionally, further research is needed for chemicals that are currently unmonitored. There are 85,000 chemicals used in commerce with little safety data, including 60,000 grandfathered in without any public health studies.
Drinking water contamination is universal, but the ability to protect against contamination is not. For this reason, further research into low-cost and user-friendly filters is needed to address possible disparities in public health.
Research Question
Can environmental justice indicators predict the distribution and location of emerging contaminants in the Neuse and Cape Fear River Basins?
Methods
Collecting contaminant data: Contaminant data were obtained from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Third Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule (UCMR3). The sites analyzed in this project source from the Cape Fear and Neuse River Basins in NC.
Environmental justice data: Environmental justice data were obtained from the EPA EJSCREEN. The environmental justice parameters analyzed were % minority population, % low income population, % linguistically isolated population and % population with less than high school education. Percentages are compared to NC state averages.
Maps: Maps were generated using geographic information system (GIS) to visualize locations of 35 water treatment plants (WTP) and environmental justice levels based on census block data for four demographics.
Bars: Graph was generated in Microsoft Excel using the average of the chemical concentrations found over the MRL.
Regression: Linear regression and R2 values for chemical contaminant levels and environmental justice parameters were computed via Microsoft Excel.
Figure 1. Base map of 14 counties that pull water from Neuse and Cape Fear Rivers, and locations of 35 WTPs. Shaded regions represent percent minority as compared to NC state averages.
Figure 2. Bar chart displaying chemical contamination at 35 WTPs.
***only data over MRL, all contaminants detected at all sites
Table 1. Linear Regression R2 values of contaminant concentrations vs EJ data
Minority
Low-income
Linguistically Isolated
Less Than High School Ed
1,4-dioxane
0.0927
chromium
0.0037
0.0544
0.0936
0.0042
chromium-6
vanadium
PFCs
References
Social Explorer Census Block Group Data
EPA EJSCREEN Tool
EPA UCMR3 Dataset
Statewide NC Public Water Treatment Facility Dataset (NCDEQ)