Session 4: All About Arsenic: Eliminating arsenic exposure in Maine and New Hampshire

Morning Session

* 2 credits are available for this session through APA AICP
* A presentation in this session has been approved for training contact hours (TCH) through the State of Maine Board of Licensure of Water System Operators. Please see below for details.

Co-Chairs:
Jane E. Disney, MDI Biological Laboratory;
Karen Bieluch, Dartmouth College

Most people in Maine and New Hampshire derive their drinking water from private wells. Often these groundwater reserves are contaminated with arsenic, in many cases far exceeding the federal EPA limit of 10 ppb, making exposure to arsenic one of the most pressing public health issues in both states.

  • Maine and New Hampshire have among the highest per capita reliance on private wells for drinking water in the U.S. at 56% and 46% respectively, representing approximately 725,000 people on private well water in Maine and 624,000 in New Hampshire.
  • Private wells are largely unregulated, and the burden is on homeowners to test their well water and mitigate any health hazards. Unfortunately, the vast majority of well owners are not aware of the arsenic problem and do not test their wells.

These facts are especially problematic since numerous studies associate exposure to inorganic arsenic with adverse health effects, including cancer of the bladder and other organs, diabetes, heart disease, reproductive and developmental problems, and cardiovascular, pulmonary, immunological, neurological, reproductive, and endocrine problems.

This session will include a panel presentation and discussion of current efforts and various approaches to addressing the issue of arsenic in well water. Part of the inspiration for this session grew from our work on an NIGMS Science Education Partnership Award (SEPA) funded project in which teachers and scientist partners are working collaboratively, engaging students as citizen scientists in a well-water monitoring effort to advance public health goals while developing data literacy skills. Updates on this effort will be shared and opportunities for networking explored.

Session Schedule

8:30AM-9:30AM – Panel I

9:30AM-10:30AM – Panel II

* Speakers are indicated in bold font.

8:30AM-9:30AM – Panel I

8:30AM-8:35AM
Introduction

Karen Bieluch, Jane Disney

8:35AM-8:50AM
The Problem with Arsenic: Developing Biomedical and Toxicological Assays to Determine Effects on Health-Span and Aging

Juyoung K. Shim
University of Maine Augusta, Augusta, ME

Exposure to arsenic is one of the most pressing public health issues in Maine, especially rural parts of the state, due to a prevailing contamination of arsenic in well water around the state. Therefore, investigating this issue is highly relevant for students and their community and also provides contexts for students to engage in scientific inquiries, motivating them to construct knowledge and meaning through the process of discovery. Even though numerous detrimental health effects by arsenic exposure, such as cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, mental disorders, allergic diseases, and developmental abnormalities have been reported, the mechanisms underlying its effects have been poorly understood. Particularly, arsenic’s toxicity on different developmental stages, fertility, and aging processes have not been fully elucidated.

C. elegans is an invertebrate animal which has similar genes and pathways as humans, but a shorter lifespan. Due to their short lifespan, similar toxicological profiles with humans, and their simple and easy maintenance, their model is adaptable to rapid undergraduate student-centered toxicological research projects. Additionally, C. elegans are transparent throughout their life cycle, which allows us to observe the fate of individual cells using simple microscopy. Owing to these advantages of C. elegans as a model organism, our lab is developing a bioassay to assess the arsenic toxicity throughout life stages of the animals on healthspan and lifespan. This exploration of new assay developments will be a part of the week-long course at MDIBL in March 2020, “Bridging Disciplines: The Impacts of Environmental Chemicals on Aging and Physiology.”

8:50AM-9:05AM
Data to Action: A Secondary School-Based Citizen Science Project to Address Arsenic Contamination of Well Water

Anna Farrell1, Kate Buckman2, Bruce Stanton3, Karen Bieluch4, Bill Zoellick5, Christine Smith1, Jane Disney1

1. MDI Laboratory, Bar Harbor, ME
2. Biological Sciences, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH
3. Microbiology and Immunology, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH
4. Environmental Studies, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH
5. Schoodic Institute, Winter Harbor, ME

In Maine and New Hampshire, arsenic contamination of well water is one of the most pressing public health issues. Most people in rural areas of these states derive their drinking water from private wells, which often have arsenic levels above the EPA limit of 10 ppb. Arsenic can cause cancer, cardiovascular, and other health problems. We will share outcomes of the first two years of a five-year NIGMS Science Education Partnership Award (SEPA) funded project in which we have engaged middle and high school students from Maine and New Hampshire as citizen scientists in collecting nearly two-thousand well water samples for arsenic analysis. Students have learned to analyze their data and share information with their communities. They have found that 62% of samplers have not or do not know if their wells were tested for arsenic before. They also discovered that 25% of all wells tested were above the New Hampshire Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL) of 5 µg/L. Addressing this issue in secondary science classrooms provides context for students to engage in scientific inquiry, and motivation for them to construct knowledge and meaning through the process of discovery. Some individual homeowners have begun to mitigate arsenic in their well water. The ultimate goal of this project is to move “Data to Action” by providing communities with the resources and information they will need to act on this public health issue at local and state levels.

9:05AM-9:20AM
Involving Students as Citizen Scientists in Testing Well Water for Arsenic: A teacher’s perspective.

Jon Ramgren
Waterville High School, Waterville, ME

As part of a state-wide initiative, Waterville High School has been engaging students as citizen scientists to assess arsenic levels in well water over the last 2 years. The students have reached out beyond the school to include friends and neighbors and to collect water samples from camps. They found elevated arsenic in many of the 84 well samples that have been analyzed to date. Nearly 20% of wells exceeded the EPA Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL) of 10 ppb. New Hampshire has lowered the MCL to 5 ppb. The number of wells of concern jumps to 32% when the 5 ppb MCL limit is considered. In order to communicate with their families and neighbors, the students put together a PowerPoint presentation and shared it at a community meeting in May 2019. They also made a film for PBS in which they communicated their concern and ideas for solutions. Students like the project because they feel like they are making a difference. Students are learning data literacy skills while contributing to the state’s database of information regarding well water quality and communities that are a risk.

9:20AM-9:30AM
Panel I Discussion

Topics: Impacts of Arsenic Exposure, Risk in Maine and New Hampshire, School-based Citizen Science Efforts to Eliminate Arsenic from Drinking Water

9:30AM-10:30AM – Panel II

9:30AM-9:35AM
Introduction

Karen Bieluch, Jane Disney

9:35AM-9:50AM
Spatial and Temporal Patterns of Private Well Water Quality: A View from Mt. Desert Island, Maine

Sarah Hall1, Gabriela Moroz1, Anna Farrell2, Jane Disney2, Bruce Stanton3
1. College of the Atlantic, Bar Harbor, ME
2. MDI Laboratory, Bar Harbor, ME
3. Microbiology and Immunology, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH

The “All about Arsenic” project is a collaboration initiated by the MDI Biological Laboratory (MDIBL) and Dartmouth College enabling private well sampling in Maine and New Hampshire, while offering educators an opportunity to engage their students in a societally relevant project fostering data literacy. College of the Atlantic researchers extended this ongoing study, sampling an additional 150 private wells in a focused location on northern Mt. Desert Island (MDI). As this region of MDI hosts different bedrock types, this study aims to assess spatial variations in groundwater quality considering geologic variations. Initial results suggest that groundwater components do generally correlate with geologic features, such as bedrock types and fault locations. With multiple sampling events between 2016 and 2019, these additional data also highlight possible seasonal variations in water yield and water quality. Further, as some private well owners filter their water for various constituents, these data suggest that their filters do not always produce the intended results. Upon resampling some wells during the dry season (~June-Oct) to compare to the wet season (~Nov-May) results, new data suggests changes in arsenic abundance of more than double in some cases. In addition to providing well water quality data to well owners, this project has fostered collaborations between researchers at COA, MDI High School and MDIBL and has provided an opportunity for college students to practice skill building in terms of data literacy, scientific process and communication, GIS techniques, research ethics, geologic processes, water chemistry, data management and analysis, and public policy.

9:50AM-10:05AM
Beyond Arsenic: Effect Directed Analysis to Predict Health Outcomes of Chemical Mixtures in the Drinking Water

Approved for 0.5 TCH

Remy Babich1 (Student), Juyoung Shim2, Jane Disney3, Nishad Jayasundara1
1. University of Maine, Orono, ME
2. University of Maine Augusta, ME
3. Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory, Bar Harbor, ME

Contaminated drinking water is a significant global health concern including in Maine. Among other potential contaminants, arsenic, that is commonly found in the bedrock along the northeast coastal communities in the United States, is a key concern in the well-water in Maine. However, ongoing studies show that there are other potential inorganic and organic compounds in the Maine drinking water supplies. Arsenic contaminated drinking water is particularly linked to lower childhood IQ and potentially to higher bladder cancer rates in Maine. Examining the chemical burden of these wells remain an important consideration, given that 56% of Maine citizens rely on private well-water sources that are unregulated. Despite mounting evidence on health impacts of chemical contaminants, determining adverse health outcomes of a given drinking water source remain difficult. Key challenges in developing a reliable water quality standard are (i) the difficulty in accounting for effects of chemical mixtures; current quality analyses are primarily based on effects of known individual compounds, and (ii) the difficulty in accounting for long-term exposure effects. To this end, we aimed to develop several effect directed analyses to determine long-term biological effects of drinking water samples collected throughout Maine. Ongoing studies are focused on high throughput assays using prominent toxicology and ageing model organisms zebrafish Danio rerio and C. elegans to test (i) susceptibility to long-term chronic diseases (energetic assays) (ii) neurological effects of water-contaminants (behavior assay) (iii) accelerated aging (life-span assays) following exposure. Future studies will be focused on integrating each of these parameters into a non-linear model to develop a health index for a given water sample.

10:05AM-10:20AM
Legislative Efforts to Address the Arsenic Contamination Problem

Sergio Cahueque, Environmental Health Strategy Center

Arsenic can harm health for a lifetime. Arsenic exposure triggers bladder, liver, and skin cancer, and harms brain development, setting up children for lifelong challenges. Yet, tens of thousands of Mainers are ingesting unsafe amounts of arsenic that come from the bedrock where wells are drilled. Maine state data shows that in a state where half the population drinks and cooks with well water, one in six wells is estimated to be unsafe. That leaves more than 100,000 children and adults at risk. Public water supplies in towns and cities are regulated, but rural residents’ wells remain exempt from Safe Drinking Water Act protections and other regulations.

The purpose of this presentation is to talk about the legislative efforts that have taken place in Maine to further protect people by addressing the arsenic contamination problem that affects thousands of people across the state.

In 2017 legislators came together to pass two laws in Maine to ensure access to safe and affordable drinking water, an issue of environmental justice. One new law funds educational outreach to boost water testing to identify arsenic-contaminated wells. The second invests $500,000 to help lower-income well owners pay for water treatment to slash arsenic exposure.

Passing these two laws was a strong start to our long-term campaign to guarantee the basic human right of affordable access to safe drinking water.

As of January of 2020, we are working on legislation that requires the state to provide free testing to families who rely on well water but cannot afford a test kit as well as set a new and more protective Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL) for arsenic.

10:20AM-10:30AM
Panel II Discussion

Topics: Spatial and Temporal Distribution of the Arsenic Problem, Research-based Approaches to Promoting Public health in High Risk Areas, Advocacy for Better Public Health Measures Related to Arsenic in Well Water