Abstract
A total of 1.7 million Virginians rely on private drinking water (PDW) systems and 1.3 million of those people do not know their water quality. Because most Virginians who use PDW do not know the quality of that water and since strontium poses a public health risk, this study investigates sources of strontium in PDW in Virginia and identifies the areas and populations most vulnerable. Physical factors such as rock type, rock age, and fertilizer use have been linked to elevated strontium concentrations in drinking water. Social factors such as poverty, poor diet, and adolescence also increase social vulnerability to health impacts of strontium. Using water quality data from the Virginia Household Water Quality Program (VAHWQP) and statistical and spatial analyses, physical vulnerability was found to be highest in the Ridge and Valley province of Virginia where agricultural land use and geologic formations with high strontium concentrations (e.g., limestone, dolomite, sandstone, shale) are the dominant aquifer rocks. In terms of social vulnerability, households with high levels of strontium are more likely than the average VAHWQP participant to live in a food desert. This study provides information to help 1.7 million residents of Virginia, as well as populations in neighboring states, understand their risk of exposure to strontium in PDW.
Highlights
Clean drinking water is essential for a healthy life
Jarque Bera, Quantile–Quantile analyses, and box and whisker plots determined that the distribution of strontium concentrations in both first and flush draw samples were non-normal with a left skew, indicating that outliers existed
With 1.7 million Virginians relying on private drinking water (PDW) and few knowing the status of their water quality, there is urgent need to understand the public health risks these residents face
Summary
Clean drinking water is essential for a healthy life. The United Nations estimates that 502,000 people die from diarrhea due to contaminated drinking water every year [1]. In the United States, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) enforces the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) to regulate water quality and promote public health [2]. As knowledge of contaminants increases and treatment techniques improve, the EPA adds new contaminants to the SDWA [3]. Contaminants are added to the SDWA if they are detrimental to human health, found in waters throughout the United States, and their removal or reduction poses a meaningful opportunity to improve public health [3]. The third round of new contaminant candidates included strontium due to its detrimental effects on bone growth [3,4]
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