Radon Contaminated Drinking Water from Private Wells: An Environmental Health Risk Assessment

Private wells that gather groundwater are often not subject to the same mandatory testing and water quality standards as that of public drinking water systems. Households that rely on private wells for their drinking water are thus at an increased risk of exposure to unmeasured contaminants such as naturally occurring radon; long-term exposure to radon increases the risk of developing cancer. However, little empirical research has measured the occurrence of radon exposure from private unregulated wells. The purpose of this study was to conduct an environmental health risk assessment influenced by the social ecological theory examining wells in a rural Colorado mountain community. Using Wilcoxon signed rank test statistics, radon levels measured in 27 private wells were compared against: (a) the Environmental Protection Agency's proposed maximum contaminant level, (b) the proposed alternate maximum contaminate level, and (c) the level measured in the local municipal drinking water system. It was found that radon contamination was statistically greater when compared to the proposed maximum contaminant level and compared to the level found in the municipal drinking water system; however, radon contamination was not found to be statistically greater when compared to the proposed alternative maximum contaminant level. This study makes an important contribution to existing literature and can enhance positive social change by demonstrating that social-ecological theory based interventions can be used to identify and address radon contaminated drinking water in private wells, and that such positive social change may be particularly important to 37 to 42 million Americans who rely on private wells for their drinking water.