Environmental Quality Models

Environmental quality models focus on approaches to enhance the local environment, including increasing access to clean and safe water, improving air quality, and revitalizing rural lands affected by environmental hazards. In rural communities, exposures to environmental hazards often arise from local industries and failing infrastructure. These hazards pose risks to health and well-being. For example, groundwater may be contaminated with byproducts from rural industries like agriculture or mining or waste leakage from improperly maintained wastewater systems.

Increasing Access to Clean and Safe Water

One approach to improving environmental quality in rural communities focuses on increasing access to safe drinking water. In many rural communities, homeowners are responsible for treating their drinking water to mitigate contaminants. However, many homeowners face barriers to maintaining safe water supplies, including resources required to test and treat water. Further, homeowners may not be aware that they are solely responsible for their water quality, it may be difficult to access testing services, and the costs of testing and treating systems may be burdensome.

Approaches to improving rural water quality include:

Improving the knowledge and capacity of rural residents, agencies, and organizations to test and treat water for safety and quality.
Replacing lead pipes or other sources of drinking water contamination in the home.
Repairing or maintaining infrastructure, such as septic systems.
Restoring wetlands or other natural features that serve to filter pollutants in the water.
Working with local industries to prevent groundwater contamination.

Improving Air Quality

Air quality is another aspect of environmental quality in rural communities. Large-scale air quality projects may require state or regional partnerships to produce meaningful changes, as air pollution levels in urban areas influence rural air quality. Policies that decrease sources of air pollution in urban areas could have a larger impact on rural health outcomes than rural interventions alone.

Revitalizing Land and Mitigating Contaminants

Rural communities often face environmental hazards that arise from industrial or manufacturing activities. These sites can continue to release contaminants into the environment after they are abandoned or close operations. The term brownfields describes former commercial sites whose future use is complicated by the real or perceived presence of contaminants or other hazards. Some brownfields are also Superfund sites, which are confirmed hazardous waste sites that pose serious threats to health and safety.

Cleaning and redeveloping brownfield sites provides multiple opportunities for rural communities to address social determinants of health (SDOH). Rural communities can use existing infrastructure to invest in new economic developments or convert the site to productive farmland. Rural communities have also used brownfield renovations as opportunities to offer job training in waste management, water quality monitoring, and emergency response.

Examples of Rural Environmental Quality Programs Addressing SDOH

The Cerro Gordo County Department of Public Health in rural Iowa implemented a project to address unsafe arsenic levels in local well water. The department conducted extensive testing and identified the aquifer that was contributing to arsenic contamination. County officials created a communications campaign to warn residents about the effects of arsenic contamination and created recommendations for water testing and drilling. The county also enacted a policy that established the need for arsenic testing and required new wells to use a different aquifer source.
The Quitman Brownfields Coalition in rural Mississippi identified several brownfield sites for potential cleanup and redevelopment. The Coalition focused on saving a primary care clinic that was built on a former gas station and faced challenges to maintaining operations after underground storage tanks began to leak. Another project funded an environmental site assessment to identify contamination concerns at a site with previous petroleum activities. After the site was approved for redevelopment, the Coalition began developing a senior center at the former brownfield.
The Snow Creek Stream Environment Zone Restoration Project in Placer County, California undertook a series of cleanup activities to restore natural wetlands and maintain the water quality of Lake Tahoe. The project involved purchasing and redeveloping a former concrete plant that was contaminating local water sources. Placer County officials directed the construction of walking trails and recreational opportunities at the site of the former brownfield. Officials also made restorations to the natural habitat to help address the disturbances caused by the concrete plant.
The New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services worked with partners to identify barriers that kept well owners from monitoring their water quality. The department developed an online tool to help well owners identify contaminants in their well water and make informed decisions about treatment options. The department also worked with municipalities to establish standards for well water quality in their local building codes.

Implementation Considerations

Rural communities seeking to implement environmental quality models to address SDOH may need to consider the history and consequences of environmental health disparities. Rural communities who are directly affected by environmental pollution and hazards should be engaged in shaping programs that affect their physical or built environment, including those that address air quality, safe water access, and mitigation of contaminants.

Rural program planners may consider the following questions when deciding to implement environmental quality approaches:

How will the project or policy affect environmental exposures of the surrounding community?
What alternative approaches could avoid or minimize the negative effects of environmental exposures?
Who lives near the environmental exposure? Who will be affected?
Are certain rural residents more likely to be affected than others?
Do the affected populations have a history of unequal exposure to environmental hazards?
Are the affected populations involved in the decision-making or implementation process for the project?
What kind of outreach strategies are needed to reach affected populations?

Resources to Learn More

2023 Brownfields Federal Programs Guide
Document
Shares information on 22 federal programs and 5 federal tax incentives that can be used to assist with the brownfields cleanup and redevelopment processes, from site assessments to evaluation.
Organization(s): U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Date: 7/2023

Private Drinking Water Wells
Website
Provides information on private water wells, including resources for private well owners to ensure the water quality in their wells, data maps of private wells in the U.S., and more.
Organization(s): U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

Water Quality
Website
Provides information and resources for farmers on protecting water quality on their land.
Organization(s): U.S. Department of Agriculture