Dataset Information

Estimation of the proximity of private domestic wells to underground storage tanks: Oklahoma pilot study.

ABSTRACT: For protecting drinking water supplies, the locations of areas with reliance on private domestic wells (hereafter referred to as "wells") and their relationship to contaminant sources need to be determined. A key resource in the U.S. was the 1990 Census where the source of domestic drinking water was a survey question. Two methods are developed to update estimates of the areal density of well use using readily accessible data. The first uses well logs reported to the states and the addition of housing units reported to the Census Bureau at the county, census tract and census block group scales. The second uses housing units reported to the Census and an estimated well use fraction. To limit the scope and because of abundant data, Oklahoma was used for a pilot project. The resulting well density estimates were consistent among spatial scales, and were statistically similar. High rates of well use were identified to the north and east of Oklahoma City, primarily in expanding cities located over a productive aquifer. In contrast, low rates of well use were identified in rural areas without public water systems and in Oklahoma's second largest city, Tulsa, each attributable to lack of suitable ground water. High densities of well use may be expected in rural areas without public water systems, expanding cities and suburbs, and legacy areas of well usage. The completeness of reported well logs was tested by counts from neighborhoods with known reliance on wells which showed reporting rates of 20% to 98%. Well densities in these neighborhoods were higher than the larger-scale estimates indicating that locally high densities typically exist within analysis units. A Monte Carlo procedure was used to determine that 27% of underground storage tanks that had at least one well within a typical distance of concern of 300m (1000ft).

SUBMITTER: Weaver JW

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7391352 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Estimation of the proximity of private domestic wells to underground storage tanks: Oklahoma pilot study.

Weaver James W JW Murray Andrew R AR Kremer Fran V FV

The Science of the total environment 20170808

For protecting drinking water supplies, the locations of areas with reliance on private domestic wells (hereafter referred to as "wells") and their relationship to contaminant sources need to be determined. A key resource in the U.S. was the 1990 Census where the source of domestic drinking water was a survey question. Two methods are developed to update estimates of the areal density of well use using readily accessible data. The first uses well logs reported to the states and the addition of h ...[more]

PMID: 28810511

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Project description:BackgroundSpatially accurate population data are critical for determining health impacts from many known risk factors. However, the utility of the increasing spatial resolution of disease mapping and environmental exposures is limited by the lack of receptor population data at similar sub-census block spatial scales.MethodsHere we apply an innovative method (Population Allocation by Occupied Domicile Estimation - ABODE) to disaggregate U.S. Census populations by allocating an average person per household to geospatially-identified residential housing units (RHU). We considered two possible sources of RHU location data: address point locations and building footprint centroids. We compared the performance of ABODE with the common proportional population allocation (PPA) method for estimating the nighttime residential populations within 200?m radii and setback areas (100 - 300?ft) around active underground natural gas storage (UGS) wells (n?=?9834) in six U.S. states.ResultsAddress location data generally outperformed building footprint data in predicting total counts of census residential housing units, with correlations ranging from 0.67 to 0.81 at the census block level. Using residentially-sited addresses only, ABODE estimated upwards of 20,000 physical households with between 48,126 and 53,250 people living within 200?m of active UGS wells - likely encompassing the size of a proposed UGS Wellhead Safety Zone. Across the 9834 active wells assessed, ABODE estimated between 5074 and 10,198 more people living in these areas compare to PPA, and the difference was significant at the individual well level (p?=?<?0.0001). By either population estimation method, OH exhibits a substantial degree of hyperlocal land use conflict between populations and UGS wells - more so than other states assessed. In some rare cases, population estimates differed by more than 100 people for the small 200?m2 well-areas. ABODE's explicit accounting of physical households confirmed over 50% of PPA predictions as false positives indicated by non-zero predictions in areas absent physical RHUs.ConclusionsCompared to PPA - in allocating identical population data at sub-census block spatial scales -ABODE provides a more precise population at risk (PAR) estimate with higher confidence estimates of populations at greatest risk. 65% of UGS wells occupy residential urban and suburban areas indicating the unique land use conflicts presented by UGS systems that likely continue to experience population encroachment. Overall, ABODE confirms tens of thousands of homes and residents are likely located within the proposed UGS Wellhead Safety Zone - and in some cases within state's oil and gas well surface setback distances - of active UGS wells.

Project description:Modern biobanks maintain valuable living materials for medical diagnostics, reproduction medicine, and conservation purposes. To guarantee high quality during long-term storage and to avoid metabolic activities, cryostorage is often conducted in the N2 vapour phase or in liquid nitrogen (LN) at temperatures below - 150 °C. One potential risk of cryostorage is microbial cross contamination in the LN storage tanks. The current review summarises data on the occurrence of microorganisms that may compromise the safety and quality of biological materials during long-term storage. We assess the potential for the microbial contamination of LN in storage tanks holding different biological materials based on the detection by culture-based and molecular approaches. The samples themselves, the LN, the human microbiome, and the surrounding environment are possible routes of contamination and can cause cross contaminations via the LN phase. In general, the results showed that LN is typically not the source of major contaminations and only a few studies provided evidence for a risk of microbial cross contamination. So far, culture-based and culture-independent techniques detected only low amounts of microbial cells, indicating that cross contamination may occur at a very low frequency. To further minimise the potential risk of microbial cross contaminations, we recommend reducing the formation of ice crystals in cryotanks that can entrap environmental microorganisms and using sealed or second sample packing. A short survey demonstrated the awareness for microbial contaminations of storage containers among different culture collections. Although most participants consider the risk of cross contaminations in LN storage tanks as low, they prevent potential contaminations by using sealed devices and - 150 °C freezers. It is concluded that the overall risk for cross contaminations in biobanks is relatively low when following standard operating procedures (SOPs). We evaluated the potential sources in detail and summarised our results in a risk assessment spreadsheet which can be used for the quality management of biobanks. KEY POINTS: • Identification of potential contaminants and their sources in LN storage tanks. • Recommendations to reduce this risk of LN storage tank contamination. • Development of a risk assessment spreadsheet to support quality management.

Dataset Information

Estimation of the proximity of private domestic wells to underground storage tanks: Oklahoma pilot study.

Publications

Estimation of the proximity of private domestic wells to underground storage tanks: Oklahoma pilot study.

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