Public Lab Research note


Water Quality Regulations, Testing Methods, Health Risks & Advocacy

by gilbert , warren | October 27, 2017 18:36 27 Oct 18:36 | #15122 | #15122

Water Quality Regulations, Testing Methods, Health Risks & Advocacy

The multiple objectives of this Public Lab Report are as follows:

1- To Provide Examples of Community Engagement in Water Testing

2- To Briefly Describe Various Types of Water Testing, such as Turbidity,

pH, Conductivity

3- To Compile Selected Regulations Pertaining to Water Quality at the

International, Federal & State Levels, as well as Identifiable

Recent Changes, with Assistance from the Broader Online Community

4- To Identify Certain Water-Borne Diseases Associated with

Pollution/Contamination of Water Quality

5- To Initiate a Spreadsheet for Methodologies Deployed for Various

Types of Water Testing, Their Relative Specifications &

Costs, Highlighting Low-Cost Tools Developed through Peer

Production, and Invite Contributors to Update

6- To Showcase Successful Advocacy on Behalf of Communities'

Sustainable Clean Water Resources & Public Health and to

Earnestly Encourage Community Contributed Answers to

Remaining Questions


1. To Provide Examples of Community Engagement in Water Testing:

OPAL Water Survey (UK) https://www.opalexplorenature.org/WaterSurvey (Instructions in English & Welsh)

STREAM TEAM (California) https://scistarter.com/project/1049-Stream-Team?tab=project&utm_medium=scistarterblog&utm_source=scistarter&utm_campaign=SEPT2014water&utm_content=Stream%20Team#sthash.pNg7Yfsl.dpbs

Wissahickon Creek Watch Program (PA) https://scistarter.com/project/1020-Wissahickon-Creek-Watch-Program?utm_medium=scistarterblog&utm_source=scistarter&utm_campaign=SEPT2014water&utm_content=Wissahickon%20Creek%20Watch%20Program#sthash.dWDxp4qm.dpbs

Wisconsin Water Action Volunteers

http://watermonitoring.uwex.edu/wav/

LEAF PACK NETWORK https://leafpacknetwork.org/

Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Palisades, NY http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/edu/k12/snapshotday/

NY DEC http://www.dec.ny.gov/lands/47285.html

CITIZEN SCIENCE PROJECTS SUPPORTED BY THE U.S. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (EPA) https://www.epa.gov/citizen-science/citizen-science-projects-supported-epa

CITIZEN SCIENCE PROJECTS FUNDED BY THE NATIONAL

INSTITUTE FOR ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH SCIENCES (NIEHS): https://www.niehs.nih.gov/research/supported/translational/peph/webinars/citizen_science/index.cfm

CITIZEN SCIENCE PROJECTS FEATURED BY THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY: https://www.nationalgeographic.org/idea/citizen-science-projects/

CITIZEN MONITORING & TRAINING: WATER RESEARCH CENTER:
http://www.water-research.net/index.php/citizen-monitoring-and-training

WORLD WATER MONITORING CHALLENGE - SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN: https://www.scientificamerican.com/citizen-science/world-water-monitoring-challenge/

CITIZEN SCIENCE & WATER MONITORING- PLOS.ORG http://blogs.plos.org/citizensci/2014/09/17/citizen-science-water-monitoring-healthy-water-near-2/

SCIENCE TEACHERS' TOOLBOX: TESTING WATER QUALITY - SHARE IT! SCIENCE NEWS: http://www.shareitscience.com/2015/06/science-teachers-toolbox-testing-water.html

"No Ph.D. Needed: 8 Impactful Citizen Science Projects," MASHABLE.COM - http://mashable.com/2014/06/25/citizen-science-projects/#rU7jCpLeTGq8

2.To Briefly Describe Various Types of Water Testing, such as Turbidity, pH, Conductivity:

The array of characteristics and content for which water resources are tested may include: Turbidity (USGS: "Turbidity is the measure of relative clarity of a liquid. It is an optical characteristic of water and is an expression of the amount of light that is scattered by material in the water when a light is shined through the water sample"), pH (Measure of the acidity or basicity of water soluble substances), Conductivity (Measure of a solution's ability to conduct electricity, as measured in Siemens per meter (S/m), E. Coli (Escherichia coli), Nitrates and total Nitrogen, Ammonia, Phosphates and total Phosphorus, total dissolved solids,DO (Dissolved Oxygen), Salinity, Temperature, Alkalinity, Trace metals and organics, and in the case of swimming pools, Chlorine.

TURBIDITY:

Octavian A. Postolache ; P. M. B. Silva Girao ; J. M. Dias Pereira ; Helena Maria G. Ramos. "Multibeam Optical System and Neural Processing for Turbidity Measurement," IEEE Sensors Journal (Volume: 7, Issue: 5, May 2007), 677 - 684.

Telesnicki, Guy J.; Goldberg, Walter M.N"Comparison of Turbidity Measurement by Nephelometry and Transmissometry and its Relevance to Water Quality Standards," Bulletin of Marine Science, Volume 57, Number 2, September 1995, pp. 540-547(8)
Publisher: University of Miami - Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science.

Richard M. Duchrow & W. Harry Everhart. "Turbidity Measurement". Transactions of the American Fisheries Society Vol. 100 , Iss. 4,1971 Pages 682-690 |Published online: 09 Jan 2011
http://dx.doi.org/10.1577/1548-8659(1971)100100100100))<682:TM>2.0.CO;2
"Turbidity, Version 2.1" (9/2005) U.S. Geological Survey TWRI Book 9

https://publiclab.org/notes/gilbert/09-22-2017/turbidity-mesurement-methods-regulations

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1wxzexr5ZqYjYOEEOI-UHcvVJP9yKl2mEXfmEg8w2ch4/edit#gid=0

A.I. Dogliotti, K.G. Ruddick, B. Nechad, D. Doxaran & E. Knaeps. "A single algorithm to retrieve turbidity from remotely-sensed data in all coastal and estuarine waters." Remote Sensing of Environment. Volume 156, January 2015, Pages 157-168 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2014.09.020

Chauncey W. Anderson. TURBIDITY 6.7, Turbidity, Version 2.1 (9/2005). https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/8d4f/f4d802f5fc4efad6dae8f6951095fffc8c95.pdf
John R. Gray, G. Douglas Glysson, Federal Interagency Subcommittee on Sedimentation (U.S.) Proceedings of the Federal Interagency Workshop on Turbidity and Other Sediment Surrogates, April 30-May 2, 2002, Reno, Nevada. U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey, 2003 - 56 pages

pH

https://publiclab.org/notes/gilbert/09-22-2017/ph-testing-technologies-citizen-science

https://www.coleparmer.com/b/oakton?PubID=ZM&persist=True&ip=no&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIs6uXpe6b1wIVAylpCh3ZoQs8EAAYASAAEgKy0PD_BwE

CONDUCTIVITY

https://publiclab.org/wiki/conductivity

https://publiclab.org/notes/GSan/10-21-2016/water-sensor-with-ne555-ec-electrical-conductivity

https://publiclab.org/wiki/conductivity_sensing

https://publiclab.org/notes/ashkaya/09-17-2016/build-a-coqui-a-simple-water-conductivity-sensor

https://publiclab.org/notes/rebeccah/08-29-2016/riffle-device-water-conductivity-sensor

https://publiclab.org/notes/pdhixenbaugh/08-20-2016/planning-for-a-new-riffle-conductivity-circuit

https://publiclab.org/notes/bhickman/05-09-2016/conductivity-and-temperature-meter

WATER QUALITY MONITORING

Béla G. Lipták, Kriszta Venczel. Analysis and Analyzers, Volume 2. CRC Press, Nov 25, 2016, 1332 pages

Randy D. Down, Jay H. Lehr. Environmental instrumentation and analysis handbook. Wiley-Interscience, 2005 - Science - 1068 pages

https://publiclab.org/notes/gilbert/10-11-2017/water-quality-monitoring-in-alabama

https://publiclab.org/notes/gilbert/09-22-2017/ph-testing-technologies-citizen-science

https://publiclab.org/wiki/water-sensors

https://publiclab.org/wiki/water-sampling?

https://publiclab.org/notes/warren/10-20-2017/what-s-an-easy-way-to-compare-two-liquid-samples-with-a-spectrometer

3. To Compile Selected Regulations Pertaining to Water Quality at the International, Federal & State Levels, as well as Identifiable Recent Changes, with Assistance from the Broader Online Community:

The motivation for compiling this report is the recognition that global water resources are imperiled (UN FAO Review of World Water Resources by Country; FAO Aquastat; World Bank Water Resources Data) and that the public health of individuated communities and the sustainability of their environments are at increased risk, given rapid and rampant deregulation of environmental resource protections (E.P.A. Moves to Rescind Contested Water Pollution Regulation, NY Times, by Coral Davenport, June 27, 2017), as well as the deference given to industrial non-compliance with existing regulations, thereby freeing corporations to either sidestep regulations or else to comply or even to exceed them for reasons other than fear of enforcement ("Social License and Environmental Protection: Why Businesses Go beyond Compliance" Neil Gunningham, 29 Law & Soc. Inquiry 307, 2004).

Moreover, the devolution of regulatory authority and of environmental monitoring ("52 Environmental Rules on the Way Out Under Trump," by NADJA POPOVICH and LIVIA ALBECK-RIPKA UPDATED Oct. 6, 2017 NY Times) and official governmental adherence to counter-scientific denial of the reality and impacts of climate change ("U.S. submits formal notice of withdrawal from Paris climate pact," by Valerie Volcovici, Reuters. AUGUST 4, 2017 / 4:25 PM), as well as expanding urbanization and its impact on peri-urban fragile ecosystems (Environmental Impacts of Urban Growth - Yale U. Seto Lab), makes it imperative for local communities to develop self-sufficiency with respect to affordable environmental monitoring, analytical technologies and associated capacity building for indigenous expertise, peer production and advocacy.

Parameters for determining water quality are dependent upon the intended end-use of the water resource. More stringent testing guidelines/standards/regulations/legislation for drinking water have been promulgated by the World Health Organization (WHO) , the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), theCenters for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC), the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) for bottled drinking water, by certain individual states, such as California and by an array of foreign governments, including Canada , the European Union, South Africa, Kenya, Australia, China61884-4/abstract), South American Countries, Russia, etc. Guidelines for water quality considered safe for recreational activities, including swimming, have been issued by the U.S. EPA and specifically by the EPA for coastal and Great Lakes recreational waters. Guidelines for swimming pools, spas and recreational waters have also been issued by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and by the CDC. State-specific water quality standards under the Clean Water Act are accessible through an EPA map-based format.

The acceptable standards for sustainable recreational and commercial fishing are to some degree dependent upon both species, season and state regulations, e.g. Wisconsin Trout Fishing Regulations 2017-2018, North Carolina Rainbow Trout Regulations, Florida Bass Fishing Regulations, 2017 Louisiana Recreational Shrimping Regulations, Maine - Lobster Regulations, Alabama Saltwater fishing and Alabama freshwater fishing. The EPA in the past periodically issued recommendations with respect to the water quality required in certain municipalities related to recreational use of water, e.g. boating, kayaking and canoeing, as was the case in Chicago. Similar water quality regulations for boating and recreational water use have emerged from the Washington [DC] Suburban Sanitary Commission (WSSC), by the Iowa Dept. of Natural Resources (DNR) for canoeing & kayaking, and by Massachusetts for boat fishing in the Quabbin Reservoir.

Less stringent requirements would normally apply to water usage for agricultural irrigation. Guidelines have been issued by multilateral organizations concerning the use of wastewater and sludge for agricultural use, such as by the United Nation's Food & Agriculture Organization (FAO), by the U.S. EPA, as well as for agricultural irrigation water quality in specific states, e.g. California and Oregon and in specific countries, such as in India and in Saudi Arabia.

Global Water Systems Project (GWSP).

"International Water Quality Guidelines for Ecosystems" (IWQGES)

http://www.gwsp.org/current-activities/water-quality-guidelines.html

https://www.iso.org/standard/62801.html

State-Specific Water Quality Standards Effective under the Clean Water Act (CWA) US EPA https://www.epa.gov/wqs-tech/state-specific-water-quality-standards-effective-under-clean-water-act-cwa

The degree to which water quality is regulated and the degree to which such regulations are enforced is highly dependent upon evolving (or devolving) policies and the implementation thereof at international, federal, state, county and even municipal levels. Risks associated with consumption and/or exposure to contaminated water resources are abundant. Areas of concern have included leaching of lead pipes into water supplies in New Orleans, LA; as well as major copper and lead contamination of tap water in Flint, Michigan.

Readers aware of recent changes in their state legislation, county/municipal ordinances or court judgements within their own communities, with respect to water quality, environmental sustainability and/or public health are urged to share their contributions to the broader network, so as to build capacity for collaboration, strengthened advocacy and development of a geospatial database for environmental deregulation, vulnerable ecosystems and populations at-risk.

4. To Identify Certain Water-Borne Diseases Associated with Pollution/Contamination of Water Quality:

Globally, waterborne diseases present significant challenges, particularly with respect to:

Vibrio cholerae (Cholera) - "Yemen: 'World's worst cholera outbreak' mapped: A look at the worst-hit areas in the war-torn country." 2017

Schistosoma mansoni, S. haematobium, S. japonecum and S. intercalatum (Schistosomiasis)An Epidemiological Update. 2017

Naegleria fowleri (brain eating amoeba)"Brain-Eating Amoeba Found In Louisiana Tap Water; People Warned To Avoid Water In Nose." Dominique Mosbergen. 07/02/2017 01:13 pm ET Updated Jul 03, 2017

Necrotizing fasciitis (flesh eating bacteria) "Flesh-eating bacteria kills Texas man repairing Harvey-damaged homes," United Press International, By Ray Downs | Oct. 25, 2017 at 1:02 AM UPI
Shigella sonnei, S. flexneri, S. boydii and S. dysenteriae (shigellosis). "S. sonnei results in 500,000 cases of diarrhea annually in the United States."

Giardia lamblia (Giardiasis) $418,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health to develop new drugs treating Giardia infections awarded to College of Idaho & Boise State U., Oct. 4, 2017.

Leptospira (Leptospirosis) "Puerto Rico sees rise in Leptospirosis after Hurricane Maria." 2017

Cryptosporidium (Cryptosporidiosis or Crypto) - "Crypto outbreaks linked to swimming have doubled since 2014" - 2017

Legionella pneumophila (Legionellosis);Legionnaires' disease infects 12 people in NYC. by Katherine Lam, Fox News Oct. 25, 2017 ; Mayo Clinic: Legionnaires Disease- "Outdoors, legionella bacteria survive in soil and water, but rarely cause infections. Indoors, though, legionella bacteria can multiply in all kinds of water systems --- hot tubs, air conditioners and mist sprayers in grocery store produce departments."

Poliomyelitis (polio) WHO Fact Sheet April 2017: Poliomyelitis; "Estimation of polio infection prevalence from environmental surveillance data," Berchenko, et al. Science Translational Medicine. 29 Mar 2017: Vol. 9, Issue 383.

Subhra Chakraborty, Munirul Alam, Heather M. Scobie and David A. Sack. "Adaptation of a simple dipstick test for detection of Vibrio cholerae O1 and O139 in environmental water," Frontiers in Microbiology, 2013; 4: 320. Published online 2013 Oct 29. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2013.00320 PMCID: PMC3810590

" 'Flesh-Eating Bacteria' From Harvey's Floodwaters Kill a Woman,"
By MAGGIE ASTOR. SEPT. 28, 2017 New York Times. [Naegleria Fowleri]

Tomofumi Nakamuraa, Mitsuhiro Hamasaki, Hideaki Yoshitomi, Tetsuya Ishibashi and Chiharu Yoshiyama. "Environmental Surveillance of Poliovirus in Sewage Water around the Introduction Period for Inactivated Polio Vaccine in Japan," Applied Environmental Microbiology. March 2015 vol. 81 no. 5 1859-1864. http://aem.asm.org/content/81/5/1859.full

Hans-Anton Keserue, Hans Peter Füchslin and Thomas Egli. "Rapid Detection and Enumeration of Giardia lamblia Cysts in Water Samples by Immunomagnetic Separation and Flow Cytometric Analysis" Applied Environmental Microbiology 2011 Aug; 77(15): 5420--5427. doi: 10.1128/AEM.00416-11 PMCID : PMC3147453.

"Yemen: 'World's worst cholera outbreak' mapped:
A look at the worst-hit areas in the war-torn country."
Shakeeb Asrar | 05 Sep 2017 13:30 GMT AL JAZEERA
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/interactive/2017/06/yemen-world-worst-cholera-outbreak-mapped-170627110239483.html

Suzy J. Campbell, J. Russell Stothard Email author, Faye O'Halloran, Deborah Sankey, Timothy Durant, Dieudonné Eloundou Ombede, Gwladys Djomkam Chuinteu, Bonnie L. Webster, Lucas Cunningham, E. James LaCourse and Louis-Albert Tchuem-Tchuenté. "Urogenital schistosomiasis and soil-transmitted helminthiasis (STH) in Cameroon: An epidemiological update at Barombi Mbo and Barombi Kotto crater lakes assessing prospects for intensified control interventions." Infectious Diseases of Poverty 20176:49 https://doi.org/10.1186/s40249-017-0264-8(c) 2017
https://idpjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40249-017-0264-8

Yakir Berchenko, Yossi Manor, Laurence S. Freedman, Ehud Kaliner, Itamar Grotto, Ella Mendelson and Amit Huppert. "Estimation of polio infection prevalence from environmental surveillance data." Science Translational Medicine. 29 Mar 2017: Vol. 9, Issue 383, eaaf6786
DOI: 10.1126/scitranslmed.aaf6786 http://stm.sciencemag.org/content/9/383/eaaf6786

5. To Initiate a Spreadsheet for Methodologies Deployed for Various Types of Water Testing, Their Relative Specifications &

Costs, Highlighting Low-Cost Tools Developed through Peer Production, and Invite Contributors to Update: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1wxzexr5ZqYjYOEEOI-UHcvVJP9yKl2mEXfmEg8w2ch4/edit#gid=0

6. To Showcase Successful Advocacy on Behalf of Communities'Sustainable Clean Water Resources & Public Health and to

Earnestly Encourage Community Contributed Answers to Remaining Questions:

  1. Can you share details on any recent changes in environmental regulations or court rulings, particularly as relates to water quality, in the State where you reside?
  2. Have you had direct experience using water testing devices in your local community and, if so, will you share your assessment of such device(s), the type of tests conducted, such as pH, turbidity or conductivity, and the results you achieved?
  3. Which community advocacy organizations have you found to be most helpful in addressing environmental, public health and/or community sustainable development concerns in your locality?
  4. What specific water quality issues have recently emerged in your region , such as "boil water alerts," "swimming bans," "no fishing advisories," "no shell-fish or bi-valve consumption recommendations," "water-borne disease outbreaks," "industrial spills," "contaminated flooding," "unusual water taste, color or smell," "bottled water purchase directives"?
  5. Have there been any local responses, complaints, protests, demonstrations or litigation, with respect to federal and/or state regulatory changes, such as deregulation impacting the Clean Water Act, mining, facking, endangered species protections, public land-use permit practices, etc. ?
  6. Has your community experienced any successes in attempts to protect or clean-up local water resources? If so, was this success achieved largely through community engagement, media attention, affiliative support from local colleges/universities, actively supportive politicians, industrial partnerships, foundation founding, state legislation/city ordinances, federal enforcement, judicial consent decrees, a combination of such factors or through other initiatives not listed herein?
  7. Is your community engaged with on-line networks with other communities and advocacy organizations, supporting your community's water quality, environmental sustainability, public health and/or economic development? If so, which network(s)? If not, are you interested in joining Public Lab's email list?

NOTE: The Public Laboratory for Open Technology and Science (Public Lab) expresses its appreciation to the Schmidt Family Foundation's 11th Hour Program www.theschmidt.org and to the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) www.nationalacademies.org for sponsorship of segments of this work, as well as for support of an array of related environmental initiatives related to Frack Sand Monitoring and Hydrogen Sulfide testing instrumentation, inter alia, by 11th Hour, as well as to Gulf Coast community environmental engagement facilitation, on the part of NAS.


7 Comments

Can you share details on any recent changes in environmental regulations or court rulings, particularly as relates to water quality, in the State where you reside?

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Have you had direct experience using water testing devices in your local community and, if so, will you share your assessment of such device(s), the type of tests conducted, such as pH, turbidity or conductivity, and the results you achieved?

Is this a question? Click here to post it to the Questions page.

Reply to this comment...


Which community advocacy organizations have you found to be most helpful in addressing environmental, public health and/or community sustainable development concerns in your locality?

Is this a question? Click here to post it to the Questions page.

Reply to this comment...


What specific water quality issues have recently emerged in your region , such as "boil water alerts," "swimming bans," "no fishing advisories," "no shell-fish or bi-valve consumption recommendations," "water-borne disease outbreaks," "industrial spills," "contaminated flooding," "unusual water taste, color or smell," "bottled water purchase directives"?

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Have there been any local responses, complaints, protests, demonstrations or litigation, with respect to federal and/or state regulatory changes, such as deregulation impacting the Clean Water Act, mining, facking, endangered species protections, public land-use permit practices, etc.?

Is this a question? Click here to post it to the Questions page.

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Has your community experienced any successes in attempts to protect or clean-up local water resources? If so, was this success achieved largely through community engagement, media attention, affiliative support from local colleges/universities, actively supportive politicians, industrial partnerships, foundation founding, state legislation/city ordinances, federal enforcement, judicial consent decrees, a combination of such factors or through other initiatives not listed herein?

Is this a question? Click here to post it to the Questions page.

Reply to this comment...


Is your community engaged with on-line networks with other communities and advocacy organizations, supporting your community's water quality, environmental sustainability, public health and/or economic development? If so, which network(s)? If not, are you interested in joining Public Lab's email list?

Is this a question? Click here to post it to the Questions page.

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