Ethical reflections on groundwater in contaminated areas

International audienceGroundwater science has a well-known relationship with social issues when dealing with risk assessment, yet there is a lack of case studies on the topic. Here, we present reflections for dealing with two ethical challenges: (i) the access and use of public domain monitoring data and (ii) the dissemination of scientific research data and its controversial character. The case study is a long-term collaborative research project aiming to bridge the social and natural sciences to tackle ethical questions and their implications for technical reporting and scientific production in a highly contaminated area situated in Portugal. The method included comprehensive interviews with hydrogeologists within the common project, the consulting of documents and the collaborative analysis of situations in online meetings between sociologists and hydrogeologists. The interviews and formal discussions were recorded, transcribed and analysed. In the two cases related to groundwater assessment in contaminated areas we found that researchers refer to emotions and moral dilemmas when they come into regular contact with social actors. Results also show that a different kind of knowledge is produced in these cases and point to three types of researchers’ positionality. The significance of this paper is to encourage reflection and action on ethical issues in the scientific community and specifically in geoethics. Bringing researchers together to share their practice will help to disentangle some of the negative emotions and moral dilemmas of scientific practice and increase the attention researchers pay to other people’s points of view and interests so as to improve the robustness of scientific data

Contaminação de solos e água em Estarreja: que efeitos na vida dos habitantes? que efeitos na vida dos habitantes?

International audienceA contaminação provocada pela atividade de grandes complexos industriais afeta a vida económica e social das pessoas que habitam em zonas contíguas a estes locais. A vulnerabilidade das populações revela-se a nível da qualidade da água, e dos solos cultiváveis; das alterações do ambiente natural, das práticas culturais e atividades económicas; dos estilos de vida e dos efeitos na saúde. Em Estarreja, apesar de indicadores de contaminação serem do conhecimento público, nenhuma recomendação oficial tem sido comunicada aos habitantes. Tal situação leva a que os próprios habitantes avaliem a sua exposição e decidam optar por certos comportamentos de proteção. Neste artigo, analisa-se precisamente a forma como as pessoas e comunidades reagem e se adaptam à contaminação em Estarreja. As principais questões identificadas são: Como a população identifica e experiencia o risco? Quais as práticas sociais (como o lazer e o consumo) afetadas? E, como é vivenciada a saúde neste território? Os resultados são relevantes para o conhecimento da vida quotidiana das pessoas em áreas contaminadas para melhor responder à ignorância e à incerteza. São igualmente úteis para a reflexão de políticas públicas em termos de informação sobre os diferentes usos seguros do território e a forma como devem ser veiculadas informações junto da comunidade local esclarecendo melhor as populações acerca de comportamentos mais adaptados

An inter-disciplinary approach to evaluate human health risks due to long-term exposure to contaminated groundwater near a chemical complex

Potentially toxic elements (PTEs) are known to threat human health due to exposure to contaminated groundwater. Some of these PTEs can lead to long-term carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic health risks. The Estarreja Chemical Complex (ECC), NW Portugal, has had an intense industrial activity since the early 1950s, which lead to high levels of soil and groundwater contamination. Local populations traditionally rely on groundwater for human and agricultural uses. Although rehabilitation measures have been implemented for the last 20 years, groundwater contamination levels remain high for some PTEs, whose concentrations may be several orders of magnitude higher than human consumption. Two groundwater-sampling campaigns were conducted showing the temporal evolution of groundwater quality and allowing for the calculation of non-cancer and cancer risks due to exposure to PTEs by the ECC-surrounding population, considering groundwater ingestion and dermal contact as exposure pathways. Hair and urine PTE contents were collected during of the second sampling groundwater campaign and were used as biomonitoring to validate the exposure of local population to PTEs. The results show that As is the contaminant with highest non-cancer and cancer health risks for the exposed population, presenting high values particularly in Veiros, Beduído and Pardilhó localities. The most groundwater-contaminated areas coincided with the localities in which inhabitants exhibit higher hair and urinary PTE concentrations. Hair samples show high levels of As, Hg and Ni, while urine samples show high levels for Al, As, Cd, Hg, Pb, Ni and Zn are elevated in localities close to the ECC. Urine and hair proved to be suitable to evaluate short- and long-term exposure to PTEs, and are strongly correlated groundwater PTEs concentrations

Human predisposition to cognitive impairment and its relation with environmental exposure to potentially toxic elements

International audienc

Economic valuation of groundwater protection using a groundwater quality ladder based on chemical threshold levels

Improving groundwater quality is expected to yield direct use benefits to society (e.g. clean and safe drinking water) and groundwater dependent ecosystems. Ten years after the adoption of the European Groundwater Directive (GWD), policymaker and public understanding of the societal value of groundwater protection is still rather limited. This is partly due to the invisible and intangible nature of groundwater resources and the sheer lack of valuation studies. This study contributes to the limited number of groundwater valuation studies in Europe by estimating the public benefits from improved groundwater quality in the Aveiro Quaternary Aquifer (AQA) in Portugal. This is the first and only economic valuation study of groundwater in Portugal. In order to communicate the various benefits provided by groundwater resources in easy understandable terms to lay people, and to assess public perception and willingness to pay (WTP) for groundwater protection, a groundwater quality ladder was developed based on the threshold values proposed in the GWD. The ladder reflects the different use and non-use values of groundwater quality improvements and accounts for natural background levels of chemicals in groundwater. The large-scale survey targets a representative sample of residents in the AQA. Split samples are used to assess the impact of framing groundwater protection in a broader regional water resources management context, giving part of the sample furthermore time to think about their WTP for. the different groundwater threshold levels. Although use values dominate public WTP for the different groundwater threshold values, substantial non-use values are also found. Public WTP is considerable, varying between 20 and 30% over and above the current water bill residents pay for safe drinking water quality and natural background levels, respectively. Giving respondents time to think and framing groundwater protection as part of the improvement of all water resources in the region results in a more conservative WTP estimate. Public WTP is higher for better informed private well owners in rural areas. Aggregated across the entire aquifer the estimated total economic value is 1.5 million euros annually for safe drinking water quality and 3.5 million euros annually for groundwater containing natural background levels only

Submarine FREsh water dischargEs: characteriZation and Evaluation (Projecto FREEZE)

ABSTRACT: The flow of terrestrial groundwater towards the sea is an important natural component of the hydrological cycle (Church, 1996). Hydrological studies have shown that land derived fresh groundwater may discharge through the sea floor through a process known as submarine groundwater discharge (SGD, Taniguchi et al., 2002). Many studies have highlighted the ubiquitous occurrence on the near-shore environment (Bratton, 2004) and for carbonate acquiferous (limestones or dolomite) with dissolution flow conduits discharge in the form of submarine freshwater springs is a well-known phenomenon (Moore, 2008; Taniguchi et al., 2002). In Portugal, groundwater supplies about 70% of the fresh water needs and most of the aquifers are hosted in sandstones and limestones along the Portuguese coastline where more than 60% of the whole population dwells. It is assumed in various cases that the aquifers discharge to the sea based on the hydraulic heads, geology and geometry of the aquifers, and on the results of numerical models. The identification and quantification of groundwater submarine discharge is crucial for water and ecosystem management. At present, the over-exploitation observed in the main deep aquifers located in the Beira-Litoral, SetúbalPeninsula and Algarve regions (north, centre and south of Portuguese littoral) led to the prohibition of drilling new boreholes, which limits local investment and economic development. The project FREEZE - Submarine FREsh water dischargEs: characteriZation and Evaluation study on their impact on the Algarve coastal ecosystem (PTDC/MAR/102030/2008) is a Portuguese national research project funded by FCT. The project started officially in January 2010 and was devoted to the study of the freshwater submarine groundwater discharges (SGD's) at sea off Olhos de Água area (Algarve, South Portugal). The project focused part of its activity on mapping an area in the continental shelf where SGDs are known to occur in the intertidal zone and their monitoring; a remote sensing methodology for detection of SGDs in the offshore have been tested leading to shallow water physical oceanographic parameters acquisition. Estimation of freshwater SGD respect to the local groundwater reserves was another key project aim in the scope to evaluate a possible exploitation or to increase attention to the monitoring of present boreholes exploitation in the studied area. In addition particular attention was dedicated to the analysis and monitoring of the submarine ecosystems and biological communities associated to the discovered SGDs. To achieve all these goals a multidisciplinary team of geologists, geophysicists, oceanographers, hydro-geologists, geochemists and biologists has been gathered in the scope to collaborate approaching the same topic by different point of view. Most of the time, the various investigations/activities have been strictly connected one to each other assuring an immediate feedback and helping in this way to the planning of further initiatives.N/