Tessa Latchmore
Ph.D. Candidate
Environmental Studies
Queen's University
N/A
2020 - Present
Supervisor(s): Anna Majury, Stephen Brown, Paul Hynds
Research Project: Development of a QMRA for private well users in Ontario
Private groundwater sources supply drinking water to an estimated 1.5 million individuals in Ontario. Unlike public water supplies, private well water quality in Ontario is unregulated, with well owners responsible for testing, treating and maintaining their own drinking water sources. Domestic wells are susceptible to bacterial and chemical contamination due to a multitude including climate, improper land application/disposal of manure. As well as human mediated factors such as poorly located and/or malfunctioning septic systems, inappropriate land application/disposal of manure and an absence of water treatment. As a result, private drinking water systems serve as a potential source of waterborne pathogens, including shiga-toxin producing Escherichia coli (STEC). Given the potential for adverse human health effect such as acute gastrointestinal illness (AGI) it is pertinent to manage and maintain the integrity of private drinking water systems for sustainable water management by providing risk assessments (e.g. quantitative microbial risk assessment)that address the full scope of well water susceptibility and human illness. The overall aim of this study is to provide an accurate assessment of the human health burden associated with unregulated private drinking water in Ontario by examining the social and physical factors that influence community water security. This research project is a major component of a larger international collaborative project entitled The WELLness Project, that seeks to develop a risk assessment tool for private well owners and public health professionals.
Latchmore T, Lavallee S, Boudou M, McDermott KJ, Brown S, Hynds PD, Majury A. (2021) Impacts of COVID-19 lockdown on private domestic groundwater sample numbers, E. coli presence and E. coli concentration across Ontario, January 2020–March 2021: An interrupted time-series analysis. Science of the Total Environment, 814: 152634.
Lavallee S, Latchmore T, Hynds PD, Brown S, Schuster-Wallace C, Dickson-Anderson SE, Majury A. (2021) Drinking Water Consumption Patterns among Private Well Users in Ontario: Implications for Exposure Assessment of Waterborne Infection. Risk Analysis, 41(10): 1890-1910.
Latchmore T, Hynds PD, Brown S, Wallace C, Dickson-Anderson SE, McDermott KJ, Majury A. (2020) Analysis of a large spatiotemporal groundwater quality dataset, Ontario 2010–2017: Informing human health risk assessment and testing guidance for private drinking water wells. Science of the Total Environment, 738:140382.
Latchmore T, Wallace C, Longboat DR, Dickson-Anderson SE, Majury A. (2018) Critical elements for local Indigenous water security in Canada: A narrative review. Journal of Water and Health, 16)6): 893–903.