Environmental Health and Protection Commons^™

Self-Reported Consumption Of Bottled Water V. Tap Water In Appalachian And Non-Appalachian Kentucky, Jason W. Marion

Journal of Appalachian Health

Introduction: Quantitative studies on drinking water perceptions in Appalachia are limited. High-profile water infrastructure failures in the U.S. and Eastern Kentucky, coupled with human-made and natural disasters in the Appalachian Region, have likely impacted opinions regarding tap water.

Purpose: To use existing unexplored data to describe baseline tap water v. bottled water consumption in Kentucky.

Methods: Telephone-based cross-sectional data were obtained from the 2013 Kentucky Health Issues Poll (KHIP) directed by the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky. Among many items in KHIP, self-reported consumption of bottled water over tap water, reasons for bottled water use, and demographic data were obtained. …

Healthy Trees – Healthy People: A Model For Engaging Citizen Scientists In Exotic Pest Detection In Urban Parks, Heather Norman-Burgdolf, Lynne K. Rieske

Dietetics and Human Nutrition Faculty Publications

Healthy Trees – Healthy People (HT-HP) is an outreach and education program created to enlist and train participants in exotic pest detection while providing them with structured opportunities to connect with urban nature and increase their physical and emotional health. HT- HP creates infrastructure to increase engagement by the urban populace in the urban tree canopy. The program solicits participants to engage in an 8-week intervention designed to expand capacity to detect non-native insect pests and pathogens, while increasing physical activity, raising awareness of healthy lifestyle choices, and improving the health of participants. Program participants were trained in tree and …

Evaluating The Impact Of Fine Particulate Matter Pollution Standards On Mortality Rates In The Southeastern United States, Lauren Wice

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) continuously monitors six criteria pollutants that are known to have impacts on public health and welfare. One of these pollutants, fine particulate matter, or PM_2.5 (which includes particles that are smaller than 2.5 micrometers in diameter), is easily inhalable and can enter the lining of the lungs and the bloodstream, posing a great risk to human health. Standards for allowable concentrations of PM_2.5 were amended in 1997, 2006, and again in 2012, becoming increasingly stringent each time. According to the EPA, health organizations, and other research studies, these particles can specifically contribute to …

Use Of Lidar-Derived Terrain And Vegetation Information In A Deciduous Forest In Kentucky, Wesley A. Staats

Theses and Dissertations--Forestry and Natural Resources

The use of Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) information is gaining popularity, however its use has been limited in deciduous forests. This thesis describes two studies using LiDAR data in an Eastern Kentucky deciduous forest. The first study quantifies vertical error of LiDAR derived digital elevation models (DEMs) which describe the forests terrain. The study uses a new method which eliminates Global Positioning System (GPS) error. The study found that slope and slope variability both significantly affect DEM error and should be taken in to account when using LiDAR derived DEMs. The second study uses LiDAR derived forest vegetation and …

Using Gis To Delineate Headwater Stream Origins In The Appalachian Coal-Belt Region Of Kentucky, Jonathan A. Villines

Theses and Dissertations--Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering

Human activity such as surface mining can have substantial impacts on the natural environment. Performing a Cumulative Hydrologic Impact Assessment (CHIA) of such impacts on surface water systems requires knowing the location and extent of these impacted streams. The Jurisdictional Determination (JD) of a stream’s protected status under the Clean Water Act (CWA) involves locating and classifying streams according to their flow regime: ephemeral, intermittent, or perennial. Due to their often remote locations and small size, taking a field inventory of headwater streams for surface mining permit applications or permit reviews is challenging. A means of estimating headwater stream location …

Risk Assessment Plan For Petroleum Underground Storage Tanks In Kentucky, Part Ll: Diesel, Heating Oil, Other Middle Distillates And Waste Oil, Wesley J. Birge, A. J. Grant, J. R. Shaw, M. D. Kercher, D. P. Keogh

KWRRI Research Reports

This report consists of an appendix :Risk Assessment Plan for Petroleum Underground Storage Tanks in Kentucky and a second appendix: Environmental Half-Life and Ecological Effects of PAHs

Kentucky Ust Field Manual, Lyle V.A. Sendlein, Wesley J. Birge, G. Blomquist, James S. Dinger, Ralph R. Huffsey, Robert D. Guthrie, Sanford W. Horstman, M. D. Kercher, Paul M. Mcginley, David C. Short, T. W. Struttmann, Larry C. Taylor, Thomas Tobin, David Dunn, Burl Naugle

KWRRI Research Reports

This study was undertaken to address the removal and closure of defective petroleum underground storage tanks in Kentucky. Goals for the study included:

• To address standards for levels of contamination requiring corrective action consistent with accepted scientific and technical principles.
• To recommend a matrix or scoring system to be used for (a) ranking sites as to actual or potential harm to human health and the environment caused by release of petroleum from a petroleum storage tank, and (2) establishing standards and procedures for corrective action that shall adequately protect human health and the environment.
• To address all compounds individually and …

The Induction Of Tolerance To Heavy Metals In Natural And Laboratory Populations Of Fish, Wesley J. Birge, William H. Benson, Jeffrey A. Black

KWRRI Research Reports

Aquatic toxicity studies were performed on two natural populations of fathead minnows. One group of organisms was taken from a metal-contaminated flyash pond associated with a coal-fired power plant and the other group was collected from relatively uncontaminated hatchery ponds. Acute tests indicated that flyash pond fish were significantly more tolerant to cadmium and copper than were hatchery fish. At an exposure concentration of 6.0 mg Cd/L in moderately hard water, the median period of survival for flyash pond fish was 50.0 hr compared to 6.8 hr for hatchery fish. Both groups of organisms were about equally sensitive to zinc. …

Enteric Virus Survival In Package Plants And The Upgrading Of The Small Treatment Plants Using Ozone, Lois S. Cronholm, James R. Mccammon, Marvin Fleischman, Jerry R. Perrich, Valerie Reisser, William Harris, Ronald R. Vanstockum, Khosrow Jaberizadeh, Michael J. Wahl

KWRRI Research Reports

Post-chlorinated effluent collected with a portable viral concentrator from four treatment plants in Jefferson County, Kentucky, yielded infective viral particles from three plants from spring through late fall. The pH, ,chlorine, turbidity, and coliform levels of these effluents indicated that viral persistence was correlated with inefficient processing which produced effluent environments that inhibited disinfection by chlorine. The disinfection potential of ozone was tested on secondary effluent and finished water seeded with poliovirus and Esaheriahia coli. Low doses of ozone inactivated viruses and bacteria in treated water, but not in effluent. The inactivation of bacteria by ozone does not appear …