“OFF THE GRID” AMISH AND MENNONITE COMMUNITIES AND CONTAMINATED KARST WATER SOURCES IN SOUTHCENTRAL KENTUCKY

There are many Amish and Mennonite communities living on southcentral Kentucky’s Pennyroyal Plateau, an extensive karst sinkhole plain. There is limited availability of water at the surface, and groundwater is highly vulnerable to contamination by agricultural land use. Families in many of these communities choose to live “off the grid” and for cultural reasons to forgo certain modern technologies. Some families lack treated water, either by choice or lack of infrastructure, and some families choose to live without electricity. A question presents itself: in rural areas of the karst landscape where treated municipal water is not used, where otherwise little or no water is available at the surface, and where karst springs are likely to be contaminated, how are families obtaining and moving water, and how are they treating it?

We are developing relationships with members of these communities and have shown that there are families relying on contaminated karst groundwater, in some cases with no treatment. Over a one-year study we found that every sample of untreated water collected from four family water supply karst springs in Barren and Monroe Counties was positive for both total coliforms and E. coli. During the study, we also worked with a family of nine in southcentral Kentucky relying on an untreated karst spring, all of whom became ill with Hepatitis A in 2018, and work by the local health department and the US Centers for Disease Control showed that the spring was contaminated with the virus.

In several springs we measured both raw water and water treated by low-cost, onsite reverse osmosis systems—used by families with electricity—and found that even under storm conditions with elevated fecal bacteria, these systems generally worked well. Settings without electricity present a much more difficult challenge.

Having shown that this problem exists, we are currently developing a GIS database for the ten-county Barren River Area Development District of southcentral Kentucky to identify the extent of the overlapping area of karst hydrogeology and communities using limited technology where there are fewer options to obtain, move, and treat water. We are also exploring the concept of Environmental Health Literacy as a potential tool for understanding these physical/cultural challenges and developing templates for solutions.