CORPUS CHRISTI, Tx — Researchers at TAMUCC have discovered a big problem created by hurricanes, and flooding waters.
Now a research group will try to understand the relationships among extreme weather events to groundwater contamination and other factors.
"We have to start looking from the surface down,” Hydrogeology Professor Dorina Murgulet said.
She explained that contaminates getting so deep underground that it reaches drinking water aquifers.
"We then wanted to look at what flooding does to the water supplies in this kind of environment where people rely on groundwater for drinking purposes, household uses and what other contaminants are going into their water,” Murgulet said.
This is an issue that can actually make people sick and something they'll be testing further.
"We can relate it back to the makeup and water chemistry if there could be expected health impacts,” Murgulet said.
To find the answer, they needed to go digging in existing wells belonging to homeowners in Aransas County, or even make a new monitoring well.
"We'll have our own pump that we bring with us, lower it down the well, pump water into containers, bring it back to the land and do the processing and analyses,” Murgulet said.
Murgulet said they'll be able to observe how contaminates with rainwater get so deep in the ground among other bigger questions.
"How extensive the problem is, how vulnerable these communities are to flooding and contamination of their water source and giving them information, they can use to try and mitigate that problem,” Murgulet said.
People wanting to help with the school's research can contact lbutton1@islander.tamucc.edu or dornia.murgulet@tamucc.edu.
