Making rural drinking water safer

As a professor in the Department of Biological Systems Engineering and faculty member in the College of Engineering, Leigh-Anne Krometis has built a nationally recognized research program examining how infrastructure, geography, and economic factors influence environmental contamination — potentially exposing Americans to contaminants in drinking water.

While public water systems are engineered and regulated to provide reliable drinking water, uncertainty and distrust can lead residents in some rural Appalachian communities to rely on untreated water from springs. Because these water supplies are outside regulated treatment systems, contamination often goes undetected.

"Just because water from a mountain spring looks clear and picturesque doesn't mean that it's free from contamination, including fecal pathogens," Krometis said.

As part of a long-standing partnership with Virginia Cooperative Extension’s (VCE) Virginia Household Water Quality Program, Krometis and her team have also investigated contamination in private drinking water supplies like household wells that fall outside public water regulations. They documented levels of E. coli and lead in private drinking water supplies that were higher than previously recognized, highlighting the need for technologies that reduce health risks. 

Krometis has led multiple Hatch-funded projects, part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture investment in consumer welfare research, and with collaborators she has received funding from the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, and private foundations.

While pathogen contamination of drinking water remains a persistent and widespread threat to health, her team has also expanded its focus to other environmental health risks. They helped develop a statewide database tracking concentrations of "forever chemicals" in private wells and monitored antibiotic resistance in rural wastewater systems, creating new opportunities to detect emerging threats and improve public health preparedness in underserved communities.

The future of clean water access

In collaboration with Philip Brown, Extension Specialist in the School of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Krometis is studying how rising sea levels and flooding can impair septic systems and create pathways for wastewater to enter private wells, springs, and groundwater. Developing a watershed-based vulnerability mapping framework could help identify water sources at greatest risk with excessive rain.

Beyond research, Krometis leads outreach, training, and policy efforts to address rural disparities in access to safe water infrastructure, contributing to VCE publications, and designing bacterial disinfection kits for community springs. She has contributed to Appalachian Regional Commission assessments of drinking water and wastewater infrastructure, highlighting persistent challenges across rural America. Efforts that demonstrate how investment in centralized water systems could help meet health-based standards or suggest decentralized approaches used in other countries. 

Developing the next generation of water professionals is a cornerstone of her program. Through graduate student mentoring, including serving as a co-PI for a National Science Foundation transdisciplinary trainee program, community partnerships, and workforce-development initiatives, she has helped build a pipeline of future scientist and water operators. Her efforts include internships for high school students, workforce-development projects supported by the U.S. Department of Labor, and citizen-science initiatives that let homeowners participate directly in water-quality monitoring.

This work reflects the CALS land-grant mission of translating research into real-world impact.

 “Safe drinking water doesn’t happen by chance,” Krometis said. “It depends on the next generation of professionals who will monitor water quality, advance environmental health research, and safeguard the systems communities rely on every day.”