Community Design for Water Quantity and Quality
The design of the built environment can impact the flow of water and wastewater in a community. Planned components of the built environment can aggravate or relieve the challenges of too little water, too much water, or poor water quality. Programs for wa
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Introduction South Bass Island, Ohio, in Lake Erie, is home to 900 residents and hosts more than 500,000 visitors each year. On August 2, 2004, the Ottawa County Health Department received calls from persons experiencing gastroenteritis after visiting the island. By September 4, approximately 1,450 cases were reported by residents and visitors (O’Reilly et al. 2007). An analysis of the hydrodynamics of the island and Lake Erie identified likely links among island waste disposal systems, the lake, and island groundwater (Fong et al. 2007). On the island, a public water system served the community of Put-inBay, but many businesses and residents used untreated groundwater pumped from private wells for potable water. Sewage disposal on the island consisted of Put-in-Bay’s publically owned treatment works and residents’ on-site wastewater treatment systems, including septic tanks. Heavy rainstorms during May, June, and July 2004 transported contaminants from sewage discharges to the lake and from wastewater treatment facilities and septic tanks to the subsurface water and possibly raised the island’s water table. In addition, Lake Erie experienced strong currents in July. All of these issues may have been factors in an extensive surface water–groundwater interchange that A.L. Dannenberg et al. (eds.), Making Healthy Places: Designing and Building for Health, Well-being, and Sustainability, DOI 10.5822/978-1-61091-036-1_6, © Island Press 2011
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THE IMPACT OF COMMUNITY DESIGN ON HEALTH
contaminated the island’s potable-water supply. In response to the outbreak, the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency and the Ohio Department of Health planned to protect public health in the future by supplying the entire island with treated drinking water from Lake Erie and by planning for an islandwide sewer system (Fong et al. 2007). These cross-contamination events are likely not unique to South Bass Island and suggest critical vulnerabilities for other communities.
Providing safe water is perhaps the most ancient challenge of built environments. Water is necessary for life, and even early civilizations used precious time and resources to ensure a sufficient water supply for growing communities. However, water also brought significant public health challenges, including waterborne diseases and long-term consequences from using water for waste disposal. In developed countries, water and sanitation issues were “solved” a century ago (Melosi 2000), and now most people take water for granted. We drive across our cities, barely aware of the streams we cross or the watersheds they define (Figure 6.1). We build extensive suburbs with thirsty lawns, ignoring the consequences of using that much water. We build extensive impervious surfaces (Figure 6.2), unaware that they are changing runoff dynamics. The built environment interacts with the baseline supply of water (think of Las Vegas and Phoenix), people’s behavioral choices, and the weather to affect the quality and quantity of water available. This chapter provides a short primer about
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