Tennessee Counties and Their Water Quality as It Correlates to Average Household Income
Abstract
Water sustains life. In addition to consumption, water is required for cleaning, cooking, in agriculture and farming and in industries. Obtaining clean drinking water is a great public health concern. In many developing countries, obtaining clean drinking water is a great challenge. By contrast, developed countries have developed many techniques to purify water hence, making clean drinking water readily accessible for public consumption. The EPA regulates water contaminants. There are many water contaminants that jeopardize the quality of drinking water and these include chemical, microbial and radioactive. This study aims to compare several counties with varying social-economic backgrounds to determine whether less advantaged communities have lower water quality when compared to more affluent counties. Three different factors were examined: copper levels, lead levels and total water hardness. Although several counties with lower household income levels had higher copper and lead levels, these effects were random and the contaminants remained below the EPA and state regulation guidelines. The total hardness had no correlation with average household income however, water obtained from the Cumberland River was much harder than water obtained from other sources.
Subject Area
Biochemistry|Water Resources Management
Recommended Citation
Shwan Hawrami,
"Tennessee Counties and Their Water Quality as It Correlates to Average Household Income"
(2019).
ETD Collection for Tennessee State University.
Paper AAI13814539.
https://digitalscholarship.tnstate.edu/dissertations/AAI13814539