Associations between private well water and community water supply arsenic concentrations in the conterminous United States

Spaur, Maya; Lombard, Melissa A.; Ayotte, Joseph D.; Harvey, David; Bostick, Benjamín C.; Chillrud, Steven N.; Navas‐Acien, Ana; Nigra, Anne E.

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.147555

Cited by 38 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…Our results align with national countylevel analyses showing greater arsenic MCL exceedances in CWSs reliant on groundwater, serving smaller populations, and serving Latinx populations, 43 and domestic wells in semiurban Latinx communities. 44 Our study expands upon previous…”

Section: Balazs Et Al Similarly Found That In Thesupporting

confidence: 80%

Inequities in Drinking Water Quality Among Domestic Well Communities and Community Water Systems, California, 2011‒2019

et al. 2022

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Objectives. To evaluate universal access to clean drinking water by characterizing relationships between community sociodemographics and water contaminants in California domestic well areas (DWAs) and community water systems (CWSs). Methods. We integrated domestic well locations, CWS service boundaries, residential parcels, building footprints, and 2013–2017 American Community Survey data to estimate sociodemographic characteristics for DWAs and CWSs statewide. We derived mean drinking and groundwater contaminant concentrations of arsenic, nitrate, and hexavalent chromium (Cr[VI]) between 2011 and 2019 and used multivariate models to estimate relationships between sociodemographic variables and contaminant concentrations. Results. We estimated that more than 1.3 million Californians (3.4%) use domestic wells and more than 370 000 Californians rely on drinking water with average contaminant concentrations at or above regulatory standards for 1 or more of the contaminants considered. Higher proportions of people of color were associated with greater drinking water contamination. Conclusions. Poor water quality disproportionately impacts communities of color in California, with the highest estimated arsenic, nitrate, and Cr(VI) concentrations in areas of domestic well use. Domestic well communities must be included in efforts to achieve California’s Human Right to Water. (Am J Public Health. 2022;112(1):88–97. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2021.306561 )

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Section: Balazs Et Al Similarly Found That In Thesupporting

confidence: 80%

Inequities in Drinking Water Quality Among Domestic Well Communities and Community Water Systems, California, 2011‒2019

et al. 2022

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“…Numerous previous studies have evaluated drivers or controls on SDWA violations. Comparison of community water system (CWS) vs private well water arsenic levels shows generally good agreement with elevated arsenic in the Southwest, central Midwest, and Northeast United States . Annual precipitation and groundwater recharge were found to be important drivers of elevated arsenic levels in the United States based on the application of machine learning approaches to private wells .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…Comparison of community water system (CWS) vs private well water arsenic levels shows generally good agreement with elevated arsenic in the Southwest, central Midwest, and Northeast United States. 22 Annual precipitation and groundwater recharge were found to be important drivers of elevated arsenic levels in the United States based on the application of machine learning approaches to private wells. 23 Another study showed that arsenic MCL (10 μg/L) violations were found mostly in the Southwest United States, primarily in groundwater systems (95%), serving small populations (mean ∼1,100 people).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Drivers of Spatiotemporal Variability in Drinking Water Quality in the United States

Scanlon

Fakhreddine

Reedy

et al. 2022

Environ. Sci. Technol.

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Approximately 10% of community water systems in the United States experience a health-based violation of drinking water quality; however, recently allocated funds for improving United States water infrastructure ($50 billion) provide an opportunity to address these issues. The objective of this study was to examine environmental, operational, and sociodemographic drivers of spatiotemporal variability in drinking water quality violations using geospatial analysis and data analytics. Random forest modeling was used to evaluate drivers of these violations, including environmental (e.g., landcover, climate, geology), operational (e.g., water source, system size), and sociodemographic (social vulnerability, rurality) drivers. Results of random forest modeling show that drivers of violations vary by violation type. For example, arsenic and radionuclide violations are found mostly in the Southwest and Southcentral United States related to semiarid climate, whereas disinfection byproduct rule violations are found primarily in Southcentral United States related to system operations. Health-based violations are found primarily in small systems in rural and suburban settings. Understanding the drivers of water quality violations can help develop optimal approaches for addressing these issues to increase compliance in community water systems, particularly small systems in rural areas across the United States.

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“…Legislative changes to primary contaminant regulation may have co-benefits upon secondary contaminant remediation. It has been reported that a decrease in arsenic concentrations and CWSs was correlated with the implementation of stricter regulation of As (Final Arsenic Rule which decreased the MCL from 50 to 10 μg L –1 ) most likely due to increased As treatment or mixing of groundwater in CWSs . Treatment of As within CWS may also treat for and remove Mn from groundwater within CWSs, but still does not address high Mn concentrations in DWCs that do not receive treatment .…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Disparities in Drinking Water Manganese Concentrations in Domestic Wells and Community Water Systems in the Central Valley, CA, USA

Aiken

Pace

Ramachandran

et al. 2023

Environ. Sci. Technol.

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Over 1.3 million Californians rely on unmonitored domestic wells. Existing probability estimates of groundwater Mn concentrations, population estimates, and sociodemographic data were integrated with spatial data delineating domestic well communities (DWCs) to predict the probability of high Mn concentrations in extracted groundwater within DWCs in California’s Central Valley. Additional Mn concentration data of water delivered by community water systems (CWSs) were used to estimate Mn in public water supply. We estimate that 0.4% of the DWC population (2342 users) rely on groundwater with predicted Mn > 300 μg L–1. In CWSs, 2.4% of the population (904 users) served by small CWSs and 0.4% of the population (3072 users) served by medium CWS relied on drinking water with mean point-of-entry Mn concentration >300 μg L–1. Small CWSs were less likely to report Mn concentrations relative to large CWSs, yet a higher percentage of small CWSs exceed regulatory standards relative to larger systems. Modeled calculations do not reveal differences in estimated Mn concentration between groundwater from current regional domestic well depth and 33 m deeper. These analyses demonstrate the need for additional well-monitoring programs that evaluate Mn and increased access to point-of-use treatment for domestic well users disproportionately burdened by associated costs of water treatment.

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Associations between private well water and community water supply arsenic concentrations in the conterminous United States

Cited by 38 publications

References 23 publications

Inequities in Drinking Water Quality Among Domestic Well Communities and Community Water Systems, California, 2011‒2019

Inequities in Drinking Water Quality Among Domestic Well Communities and Community Water Systems, California, 2011‒2019

Drivers of Spatiotemporal Variability in Drinking Water Quality in the United States

Disparities in Drinking Water Manganese Concentrations in Domestic Wells and Community Water Systems in the Central Valley, CA, USA

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