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Water service providers consistently oversee potable water supplies. However, once water enters the personal plumbing of residences, there are no evaluations on what is flowing from the faucet.

For households connected to water service providers and the 23 million American homes relying on private wells, there is minimal guidance regarding how or why they should be concerned about what streams from the tap. Moreover, those with worries about lead or other possible pollutants in their domestic plumbing lack many affordable alternatives to address these issues.

Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis aim to rectify this with a straightforward strategy: Empower individuals with a way to assess their own tap water.

The initiative, Trusted Tap, advances into Phase 2 this year with extra funding from the U.S. National Science Foundation Directorate for Technology, Innovation and Partnerships (TIP). The Trusted Tap group is part of a cohort initiated in 2023 focused on the subject of “Future Water Systems.” Teams chosen for this phase may secure up to $5 million over three years to enhance the project.

The concept is that families acquire commercially available water filters online or in stores, utilize those filters until replacement is necessary, and then send the used filters to WashU for analysis. The filter performs the purification, and in return for submitting their used filters, households can obtain an overview of what precisely is present in their water. The data regarding water quality is documented, and WashU researchers can provide advice on subsequent steps if contaminants of concern are found.

Trusted Tap is part of the NSF TIP Directorate Convergence Accelerator program, aimed at expediting innovative technologies and preparing Americans for the higher-paying, skilled jobs that arise.

“It’s truly about disseminating impactful scientific research on a national scale in a relatively short time,” stated Dan Giammar, the Walter E. Browne Professor of Environmental Engineering and the head of WashU’s Center for the Environment.

Giammar is the lead investigator for Trusted Tap, collaborating with partners from various disciplines at WashU and beyond. The project aligns with WashU’s “Here and Next” strategic framework to “mobilize research, education, and patient care to establish WashU and St. Louis as a global epicenter for transformative solutions to the most profound societal challenges.”

Implementing a system for long-term water monitoring is one such challenge, particularly with the growing awareness of the health risks posed by per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), commonly referred to as “forever chemicals,” which are detected in approximately 45% of water sources in the U.S.

Realizing a sustainable water monitoring system necessitates a blend of individuals from varying backgrounds. To that end, WashU has formed a partnership with the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and is working to establish a pilot program with the Cherokee Nation Office of Environmental Health, the Chicago Department of Water Management, and both the Midwest Assistance Program and RCAP Solutions, organizations that connect well owners across multiple states. Additionally, this is a multidisciplinary endeavor across WashU, including the McKelvey School of Engineering, the Center for the Environment, the Health Communication Research Laboratory at the School of Public Health, the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts, and the Skandalaris Center for Interdisciplinary Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

“Our purpose is to ensure that everyone in the country has access to safe drinking water, which cannot happen if they are unaware of what is in their drinking water,” Giammar expressed.

What’s on tap

Phase 1 of the initiative involved forming partnerships, conducting user discovery and research, and assessing the filters available for public use. Phase 2 is where this groundwork transitions into households.

Jesse Campbell is a coordinator of the private well program through the Midwest Assistance Program. He was enlisted to help researchers understand the needs of well owners. His primary role is traveling throughout the Midwest, educating well owners and connecting them with resources.

“Many well owners never interact with any water quality professionals at all,” Campbell noted. Simplifying the Trusted Tap process and making it cost-effective is vital to reaching this demographic, he added.

The final “outcome” of this project is the type of education that Campbell delivers. WashU scientists are not creating a brand-new filter; instead, this initiative focuses on utilizing filters already available on the commercial market and generating water quality reports that engage property owners with next steps rather than overwhelming them.

“I consistently discuss the importance of testing with well owners, and why they should know their water quality,” Campbell shared.

Rachel Garg, an assistant professor at the WashU School of Public Health and the co-principal investigator of the project, will guide the next phases of Trusted Tap, which include audience research, user testing, message testing, and the creation of instructional prototypes and water reports. Equally important as the science of water assessment is the strategy for getting the public to embrace that science.

Health communicators will collaborate with the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts to produce prototype water reports that provide directions for subsequent steps and methods to remediate any identified contaminants.

“They’ll develop several different prototypes, and our team will conduct message testing,” Garg explained.

One conceivable example of how this process may unfold:

Imagine a well owner utilizing a pitcher water filter that endures for three months: The well owner sends the used filter to WashU, where environmental engineers detect hexavalent chromium levels on the filter that exceed the recommended limits. That property owner will then receive instructions for treating hexavalent chromium, which necessitates the installation of a reverse osmosis filter. In the long run, the goal is to collaborate with the commercial filter industry to maintain the project beyond academia. Ultimately, homeowners will be mailing those filters to a Trusted Tap company.

In addition to well owners and private water sources, the pilot project will also involve households in Chicago due to the city’s initiative to replace its lead pipes. Chicago’s water system contains the highest number of lead pipes in the nation. The plumbing replacement process poses risks for water quality since materials such as lead can flake into the water supply during pipe disruptions. A used filter report could potentially inform participants if lead levels are increasing and offer remediation options.

Eliminating the uncertainty

WashU students are also engaged in this ambitious project, with designers creating a Trusted Tap logo and engineering students working on pollutant removal from filters.

Zehua Wang, a PhD student in energy, environmental, and chemical engineering at McKelvey Engineering, expressed excitement about his involvement in Trusted Tap. He has nurtured an interest in environmental engineering since high school, recalling concerns about the tap water in his hometown when it began to appear yellow.

While it was unlikely a hazardous contaminant, “it was not adequately reported, and scientific discussion around it was insufficient,” he said. “Nobody mentioned it. It was alarming.”

Now, he has the chance to clarify those waters.

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He is investigating methods to eliminate metal impurities like lead and chromium from the filters households will submit — and subsequently, how to effectively compile his results so that details regarding impurities can be included in the reports returned to households.

“I analyze how various filters can eliminate distinct metal impurities and how to create an effective extraction technique to recover those metals,” he remarked.

The subsequent phase of inquiry for the engineers involved in the used filter assessment will focus on integrating several techniques of contaminant extraction, including discovering a means to identify microplastics and microbes.

Participating faculty from McKelvey Engineering in this initiative include Kim Parker, an associate professor, co-principal investigator, and the research lead for process innovation, in addition to Fangqiong Ling, an assistant professor, who is a co-leader in pilot evaluations.

Inventing innovative methods to identify the impurities collected by the used filters offers numerous advantages beyond alleviating the need for households to send WashU containers of water, Parker and Ling noted.

A commercially accessible filter that typically endures for a couple of months “provides us with data about the water quality over a considerably extended timeframe,” Parker stated.

On numerous occasions, for instance, the concentrations of certain contaminants may remain minimal. However, if there is a sudden spike of a chemical in the system, “if you aren’t gathering a water sample at the appropriate time, you overlook that peak,” she remarked.

Another benefit of using the filters is that it is significantly simpler to mail a dry filter than to ship gallons of water from various sampling intervals.

Ling explained that one difficulty in detecting microbes in potable water is that they frequently present at such low levels that they cannot be identified in a single water test. However, using a filter that captures a two-month duration is “far simpler to analyze.” Chemicals also have a higher likelihood of accumulating over time through this method.

Parker emphasized that the collaborative nature of this process is crucial for its success. To thrive, they need to engage with the public using clear language and straightforward action steps. This is where health communication specialists from the School of Public Health, the Sam Fox School, and partners at the University of Illinois become essential.

“That’s going to be an incredibly thrilling partnership,” Parker expressed. “I feel as though I’ve already gained a lot from them.”

Discover more about what WashU can achieve.

The article WashU’s Trusted Tap will enable households to monitor water quality appeared first on The Source.

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