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. 2020 May 1:261:110151.
doi: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2020.110151. Epub 2020 Mar 2.

Environmental health perceptions in a superfund community

Raja M Nagisetty  1 , Daniel A Autenrieth  2 , Sarah R Storey  2 , William B Macgregor  3 , Loran C Brooks  4
Affiliations

Environmental health perceptions in a superfund community

Raja M Nagisetty et al. J Environ Manage. .

Abstract

A disconnect between community perceptions and officially documented Superfund remedial actions and health outcomes may hinder the essential community engagement at Superfund sites. This study evaluates the extent of one such potential disconnect in Butte, Montana, which is part of the largest U.S. Superfund site in the U.S. Since the 1860s, when mining began in Butte, mine waste disposal practices in Butte and surrounding areas have left behind massive deposits that have contaminated the area's soil, sediment, groundwater and surface water with arsenic and heavy metals. Over the last four decades, a substantial amount of remediation work has been completed along with requisite community engagement and health studies at this Superfund site. The potential disconnect was evaluated using a new survey instrument that covered: (a) general environmental health perceptions, (b) mine-waste specific environmental health perceptions, (c) effectiveness of community engagement, (d) knowledge of health outcomes, and (e) demographics. The survey results demonstrated a disconnect in many instances where objective remedial improvements may not have resulted in improved environmental health perceptions in the community. The disconnect was most pronounced in the case of drinking water protection from mine waste and knowledge of health outcomes (cancer incidence rates and children's blood levels). The use of similar environmental health perception measurements may aid responsible agencies in monitoring for and addressing environmental health perception disconnects through better community engagement for the benefit of the impacted communities.

Keywords: Community engagement; Environmental health perceptions; Superfund.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Interest Statement

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

Figures

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Survey Questionnaire
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Survey Questionnaire
Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Aerial image of Butte, MT. The large black section in the center of the image is the Berkeley Pit. “Uptown” refers to the area to the left (west) of the Berkeley Pit and the “Flats” refer to the area below (south) the Berkeley Pit.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Sample demographic comparison of dichotomous survey variables with Butte, MT population statistics.
Figure 3:
Figure 3:
Means and 95% confidence intervals for general and mining waste-specific environmental health perceptions of Butte, MT residents (n=163). Confidence intervals were computed using individual standard deviations.
Figure 4:
Figure 4:
Relationship between general and mining waste-specific environmental health perceptions of Butte, MT residents (n=163).
Figure 5.
Figure 5.
Mine waste-specific environmental health perceptions of Butte, MT residents, by income category. Figure 5A details perceptions related to water quality, 5B details perceptions related to soil quality, and 5C details perceptions related to air quality.
Figure 6.
Figure 6.
Superfund health outcomes knowledge disconnect questions results. An asterisk indicates agreement with reported data.
Figure 7.
Figure 7.
Proportion of respondents reporting each source as a means of obtaining environmental health information
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Abdi H, 2007. The Bonferroni and Sidak Corrections for Multiple Comparisons, in: Salkind NJ, Frey B (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Measurement and Statistics. Sage Publishing, Inc., Thousand Oaks, California.
    1. Atlantic Richfield Company, 2015. Anaconda Smelter NPL Site Community Soil Operable Unit. Final Residential Soils/Dust Remedial Action Work Plan/Final Design Report (RAWP/FDR). https://semspub.epa.gov/work/08/1549208.pdf
    1. Barry SL, 2012. Coming to the surface: the environmental, health, and culture in Butte, Montana. University of Montana, Missoula, MT: Available online at https://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd/210
    1. Butte-Silver Bow County, Atlantic Richfield Company, 2014. Butte priority soils operable unit public health study. Prepared by ENVIRON International Corporation for Butte-Silver Bow County and Atlantic Richfield Company, Butte, MT.
    1. Butte-Silver Bow County, 2015. Community Health Profile. https://co.silverbow.mt.us/DocumentCenter/Home/View/6621

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