2018 Hurricane Season: RAPID: Rural residents' self-protections to perceived and actual contamination risk in private drinking wells after Hurricane Florence

East Carolina University, Greenville NC

Investigators

Abstract

Hurricane Florence dumped 8 trillion gallons of rain on North Carolina. Duplin and Sampson Counties, which lead the nation in pork production (#1 and #2) and poultry production (#2 and #3), were among the most affected areas receiving 20+ inches of rainfall, catastrophic flooding and hurricane force winds. Few residents in the two rural counties have access to a public water supply and therefore rely on groundwater wells. Inundated wells, and those wells downstream of the state's 3,000+ open waste lagoons, are at severe risk of contamination from coliform bacteria and nitrate. The extent to which this environmental exposure occurs depends on residents' capacities to perceive, but not necessarily confirm, this risk and respond with appropriate efforts to protect themselves (e.g. purchasing bottled water, boiling water, installing water filtration systems). The rate at which wells become polluted following a storm event, the time required for the wells to return potable water and the actions taken by homeowners to protect themselves in the interim all remain unknown. By leveraging recent water quality sampling prior to Hurricane Florence in the storm-affected area, this research is a time-sensitive and unique opportunity to document actual and perceived groundwater contaminant exposures, measure the dissipation of actual and perceived contamination over time and observe self-protective risk mitigation actions taken. The research team conducts two follow-up rounds of water quality sampling and resident interviews with the objective of measuring the perceived and actual contamination impacts of an unexpected shock on groundwater purity and the measures that rural homeowners take to self-protect. The findings inform whether rural homeowners take appropriate and timely action to self-protect against flood-related environmental exposures and whether self-protection efforts by these homeowners is a substantial contributor to the social cost of groundwater contamination. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.