Study examines strategies to reduce disinfection byproducts in water
BY PHILL BARNETT
MOUNTAIN CITIZEN
INEZ — Researchers at the University of Kentucky are seeking citizens from Martin and Letcher counties to participate in a drinking water study as part of the Mountain Drinking Water Project. Participants will be trained as citizen scientists to collect monthly tap water and air samples in their homes to help identify and reduce exposure to disinfection byproducts (DBPs).
Martin County Concerned Citizens chairman Nina McCoy announced the study in a meeting Thursday in Inez.
“You might see this flyer throughout town,” McCoy said, displaying a flyer titled “Join the University of Kentucky’s Mountain Drinking Water Study.”
McCoy said the study is just beginning and follows a 2019 pilot study in Martin County that included water testing in 97 randomly selected homes.
The Mountain Drinking Water Project, headed by UK professor Jason Unrine, is a collaboration between UK and community partners, including Martin County Concerned Citizens, Appalachian Citizens’ Law Center, Headwaters Inc., Livelihoods Knowledge Exchange Network and others.
The project, funded by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, will examine strategies for reducing DBPs in the drinking water and air in homes supplied by the public water system. DBPs are formed when water treatment chemicals react with organic matter in water.
“They are there because we disinfected the water with chlorine,” said McCoy. “And we have to do that because you don’t want bacteria in your water.”
In the cases of heavily contaminated water, the treatment that kills bacteria can deposit high enough concentrations of DBPs in the water and the air to pose health risks.
Residents in both Martin and Letcher counties became familiar with DBPs through notices of concentration violations printed on the back of their water bills for over a decade, the last notices being in September 2017.
The notices contained warnings of dangerous concentrations of two common DBPs – trihalomethanes and haloacetic acids – saying that they have been linked to cancer as well as liver, kidney and central nervous system problems. Notices also warned that people with compromised immune systems, pregnant and nursing women, infants and the elderly may be at an increased risk and should seek advice from a health care provider about drinking the water.
“We got a lot of these,” said McCoy. “And that was over many years.”
According to McCoy, the 2019 pilot study showed that DBPs in Martin County exceeded the maximum contaminant level in 35 percent of tests. Broad geographic and year-round testing revealed the concentration of DBPs was heavily influenced by season and temperature.
However, while the pilot study was ongoing in 2019, the Martin County Water District’s official testing indicated no excess of DBPs.
Before the meeting ended, McCoy introduced Dr. Beverly May, project manager for the environmental health literacy arm of the Mountain Drinking Water Project, and Mary Cromer of Appalachian Citizens’ Law Center.
May thanked the group for inviting her while Cromer encouraged residents to sign up for the study.
Those interested in participating in the study must live in Martin or Letcher county and have public water service. Participants must be 18 or older, read and write English, and have reliable access to the internet.
Citizen scientists will fill out a survey and undergo an hour-long in-person or online training at the beginning of the study. They will then conduct and report monthly water and air quality tests in their home for a year. Home testing kits will be provided by the researchers and will not cost participants anything.
At the end of the study, participants will take an exit survey and receive a check for $50 in return for their time and effort.
Contact Martin County Concerned Citizens on Facebook or email Madison Mooney at mmooney@likenknowledge.org for more information on how to participate.