DATE/TIME: Friday, December 12, 2025, 2:30 pm PLACE: ENR building, room 223 or this Remote Live option.
Kelly Good
Civil and Environmental Engineering, Villanova University
Upstream decisions, downstream impacts: Assessing wastewater discharges, drinking water quality, and environmental justice in watersheds
Drinking water sources are affected by natural and anthropogenic processes that can alter their treatability and have human health consequences. One of the many challenges faced by drinking water providers is balancing the acute risk of waterborne disease with the chronic risk posed disinfection byproducts (DBPs), which form when precursors, e.g., organic matter and bromine (Br) and/or iodine (I), react with chemical disinfectants during drinking water treatment. DBPs are ubiquitous in chemically disinfected drinking water. While hundreds have been identified since the 1970s, only a handful are regulated (11 in the U.S.). There is increasing consensus that the few regulated DBPs are not the toxicity drivers of the complex mixtures formed. Halogens, particularly Br and I, are known to lead to elevated levels of disinfection byproducts (DBPs), with toxicity generally following I-DBPs > Br-DBPs > Cl-DBPs. This seminar will highlight Dr. Good’s modeling and policy work to study the effects of upstream wastewater discharge contributions of Br and I on downstream drinking water quality and public health at various spatial scales (watershed to contiguous U.S.). Included in this talk will be work linking sociodemographic characteristics to populations served by drinking water systems downstream of wastewater discharges. Incorporating social vulnerability data revealed distinct geographic patterns, with disproportionate potential effects on minority communities in the Southern U.S. These findings enable targeted prioritization of monitoring and regulatory efforts, addressing environmental justice concerns in drinking water quality management.
Seminar Host:
Elodie Passeport
Department of Environmental Sciences, SEBS, Rutgers University