In rural Regions of Appalachia many homes and towns rely on septic systems to dispose of waste. However, for homes that are unable to replace or afford septic systems, many rely instead on Straight pipes which dump raw sewage right into streams and rivers. Well water & spring water sources quickly become contaminated by Escherichia coli & other coliforms, even rendering streams and creeks unsafe for recreation: worse yet, many of these are resistant to antibiotics. Recent studies have shown that the presence of Heavy Metals such as Copper can co-select for and maintain resistant organisms in the environment(1). In a region with heavy mining history and contaminations such as Letcher county, this presents potential health concerns as consumption of contaminated water would increase risk of infection by resistant pathogens. As such, an Environmental Health study was performed with a twofold aim: To characterize levels of E. coli and ARB E. coli along with heavy metal contamination in streams within Letcher County and surrounding areas; secondly, to further investigate which factors such as Conductivity, metal presence, and pH aid in the preservation of resistance genes in aquatic environments. pGLO method was used to quantify E. coli & ARB E. coli in stream samples, and a Pearson Correlation table was constructed to analyze correlation between environmental factors. We concluded that, from 48 sites, 41 have been contaminated by mining. Secondly we found a moderate positive correlation between antimicrobial resistance and Conductivity. Lastly, by constructing a disturbance index and running Odds Ratio, our data suggests greater odds of finding resistant organisms in heavily contaminated sites. Future experiments using conductivity as a stressor will be able to confirm the correlation found by this study, and a more long term study of water quality will be more effective in determining contamination by mining in the region.
Author: Eckhardt Karsten
Advisor: Jason Marion, Environmental Health science (EKU)
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