Hurricane Harvey was an unprecedented rain event that delivered five consistent days of flooding and storms to Texas last August. Now, civil and environmental engineering research from UTSA has confirmed that the storm caused high levels of fecal contamination to be introduced into waterways draining into the Gulf of Mexico.
UTSA Assistant Professor Vikram Kapoor’s research looked at microbial contaminants in southeast and south central Texas waterways following Hurricane Harvey. His work was supported by a Rapid Response Research grant from the National Science Foundation.
After 800 wastewater treatment plants reported spills from flooding and more than two million pounds of contaminants were released into the environment, the study reports that the sewage overflows posed a risk to human and environmental health via waterborne disease outbreaks. The study also found a drop in recreational and drinking water. The report further confirms how hurricanes and large storms play a significant role in the transport of water contaminants across environmental waters.
Kapoor selected the Guadalupe River because it is an important drinking water source for several cities and is used in part for recreational activities. The river runs from Kerr County, Texas to the San Antonio Bay in the Gulf of Mexico. Excessive rainfall from Hurricane Harvey resulted in major flooding over the Guadalupe River in Victoria, Texas. The river crested at 32 feet, around 10 feet above flood stage.
All the initial water samples collected from the flooded regions of the Guadalupe River by Kapoor and his students contained E. coli and enterococci concentrations above the regulatory level for contact recreational waters. The UTSA study suggested future studies are needed to explore relationships between human health and human-associated fecal marker levels in recreational waters impacted by sewage, treated effluents and human feces.
The findings of this initial study will serve as the baseline information for future studies of public health risks to residents of Texas and environmental impacts on the water resources, the researchers said.
During Spring Break 2018, officials published alerts concerning fecal matter at some Texas beaches. While Kapoor says it’s too early to tell if those beaches were impacted as a result of Hurricane Harvey, he notes that he and his students observed elevated levels of fecal bacteria at flooded sites even two to three months after Harvey.
The UTSA environmental engineering professor is hopeful that his research on the short and long-term effects of Hurricane Harvey’s flooding will lead to the development of a predictive framework to assess wastewater contamination following severe flooding.
“We are conducting research at UTSA on the mobilization of microbial contaminants and the length of time they persist in affected areas,” he said. “The results will improve how scientists evaluate the human health impacts of contaminants mobilized and deposited by floodwaters.”