20 September • Salinity and Irrigation Water Reuse in Coastal Communities: Source Mitigation Strategies and Treatment Processes by Dr. Tao Yan, WRRC. Location: Zoom (register for Zoom here).
4 October • Red Hill Registry: A Community-Engaged Approach to Identifying and Addressing Public Health Needs From the 2021 Jet Fuel Spill at Red Hill by Dr. Catherine Pirkle and Tara H. Sutton. Location: Zoom (register for Zoom here).
11 October • Reading the Aquifer in the Stream: In-stream Measurements at Low-flow Reveals Transport and Denitrification Patterns in the Sub-surface by Camille Vautier, University of Rennes and How do Tetracycline and Ciprofloxacin Affect Nitrate Reduction in Coastal Sediments? by Anniet Laverman, University of Rennes. Location: HIG 210, UH Manoa Campus and Zoom (Register for Zoom here)
25 October • It's Flooding More Than We Know by Dr. Katherine Anarde, North Carolina State University
15 November • Lucienne de Naie & WRRC. Title: TBA
For more information about the Fall 2024 WRRC Seminars, please contact: Chris Shuler, cshuler@hawaii.edu
If interested in joining the seminar, please contact: wrrc@hawaii.edu
Reading the Aquifer in the Stream: In-Stream Measurements at Low-Flow Reveals Transport and Denitrification Patterns in the Sub-Surface
Speaker: Dr. Camille Vautier
Date: October 11, 2024 (2:00 pm, HST)
Excess nitrogen in surface and groundwater leads to the degradation of drinking water resources and eutrophication of ecosystems. The export of nitrogen from inland to the coast is strongly determined by the transport and denitrification processes occurring in headwater catchments. Yet, most regulatory frameworks impose the monitoring of medium-to-large rivers while smaller streams, too numerous to be systematically monitored, remain poorly understood. Headwaters are often characterized by strong connections between surface water and shallow aquifers. Understanding the processes occurring in the sub-surface is thus necessary to predict river water quality. To face the difficult access to the subsurface, we propose to infer soils and aquifers’ removal capacity from in-stream measurements of nitrate and silica, which is used as a proxy for water residence time in the aquifer. In parallel, we estimate the respiration and denitrification potential of the stream and the hyporheic zone by monitoring dissolved gases (O2, CO2, N2, N2O) with membrane inlet mass spectrometry. Our approach opens new perspectives for a broadly applicable method of characterizing sub-surface transport and nitrate removal capacity.
How Do Tetracycline and Ciprofloxacin Affect Nitrate Reduction in Coastal Sediments?
Speaker Dr. Anniet Laverman
Date: October 11, 2024 (2:00 pm, HST)
Fluoroquinolones and tetracyclines are frequently detected antibiotics in aquatic sediments. We investigated the transport and fate of ciprofloxacin (CIP) and tetracycline (TC) as well as their impact on nitrogen transformations in sediments from the Seine Estuary (France). Flow through reactor experiments showed that although TC and CIP strongly interacted with the sediment components through adsorption and (bio)-chemical transformation, they kept their antimicrobial activities. Less nitrate reduction was observed during the first week of the experiment, while TC and CIP were absent in the column effluent. Whereas TC is to a large extent chemically transformed and little adsorbed in the sediment, CIP was less transformed and more adsorbed, most likely due to the great reactivity of TC with redox-active mineral surfaces. Our findings show the strong capacity of natural sediment to retain and transform antibiotics, while still maintaining their antimicrobial activity or inhibitory effect of nitrate reducing activity.
Red Hill Registry: A Community-Engaged Approach to Identifying and Addressing Public Health Needs From the 2021 Jet Fuel Spill at Red Hill
Speakers: Dr. Catherine Pirkle and Tara H. Sutton
Date: October 4, 2024 (2:00 pm, HST)
On November 20, 2021, a release of up to 5,542 gallons of JP-5 entered the Red Hill shaft, a key groundwater source for the Navy’s drinking water system which supplies water to nearly 100,000 people across Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam (JBPHH) and neighboring communities in Honolulu, Hawaiʻi. Approximately 9,600 households, numerous schools, daycare centers, and workplaces were affected by the contaminated drinking water. The impacted community includes military personnel and their families, as well as civilians whose work, residence, school, or daycare are serviced by the Navy water system. Jet fuel exposure has been associated in the research literature with significant health conditions including increased rashes (dermatitis), negative effects on the central nervous system (e.g., brainstem and central auditory impairments), loss of kidney function (nephropathy), and increased adverse effects on the immune system (immunotoxicity). In addition, individuals impacted by the incident have reported numerous health effects, including headaches, diarrhea, abdominal pain, rashes, and nausea.
On June 11, 2024, the National Center for Disaster Medicine and Public Health awarded the UH System a five-year cooperative agreement to establish a Red Hill Independent Health Registry (“Registry”). The goals of the Registry are to: 1) Connect the community to needed services through a referral program; 2) Provide educational programs for healthcare providers and community members; and 3) Track participants’ health status over time and gather information on how fuel exposures may impact health. The Registry will be co-developed with the community. Our planning processes are grounded in intensive community engagement, ensuring that community members aren’t just heard but actively serve as we co-create the Registry to support and benefit the impacted community. Exposure to jet fuel through the drinking water to the general population is unprecedented and little is known about the potential health effects, particularly in vulnerable populations such as children and pregnant women.
The Registry will be the foundation for epidemiological health outcomes studies which are necessary in situations such as those of the Red Hill Incident to fill knowledge gaps and inform treatment plans to meet the needs of the impacted, scientific and medical communities and public at large. Extensive community engagement will help to ensure that the Registry as well as future researchers working with impacted community members are able to provide answers to the many questions surrounding this incident in both the near and long terms.
Salinity and Irrigation Water Reuse in Coastal Communities: Source Mitigation Strategies and Treatment Processes
Speaker: Dr. Tao Yan
Date: September 20, 2024 (2:00 pm, HST)
High salinity in reclaimed water is a common phenomenon in coastal communities and is inhibitive to certain water reuse applications, in particular agricultural and landscape irrigation. The salt introduction can happen at multiple points of the wastewater lifecycle, including source water, drinking water treatment, wastewater generation (domestic and industrial), and wastewater collection. Once in the wastewater, treatment options for salt removal are very limited and costly, which hinders the economic feasibility of irrigation reuse. This talk will discuss the different wastewater salt sources for coastal areas, salt source mitigation strategies, treatment processes for salt removal, and research needs in these respective areas.