Leigh-Anne Krometis, associate professor in biological systems engineering at Virginia Tech., will present a Suter Science Seminar at Eastern Mennonite University Wednesday, Sept. 26, at 4 p.m.
Krometis will discuss water and sanitation impacts and challenges in Appalachia.
The seminar in Science Center Room 106 is free and open to the public.
Despite decades of investments in water infrastructure in the United States to protect public health, there remain communities in the Central Appalachian coalfields that struggle to secure safe drinking water and appropriate sanitation. Krometis will highlight ongoing research efforts to review the primary challenges inherent to Appalachian geography and history that render provision of centralized water treatment and adequate wastewater treatment difficult; describe the downstream ecological and human health impacts of straight-piping household wastewater; and discuss the motivations and potential health risks associated with reliance on spout springs for provision of potable water.
Krometis has been working on issues of drinking water access and sanitation in the Appalachian coalfields for over eight years, funded by the National Institutes of Health, United States Department of Agriculture, and the Appalachian Research Initiative for Environmental Science. She is a steering committee member of the Virginia Tech Ecological and Human Health in Rural Communities Initiative, and the co-chair of the American Public Health Association’s Building Healthy Communities committee.
She earned undergraduate and master’s degrees in biological systems engineering from Virginia Tech, and completed her doctorate in environmental sciences and engineering at the University of North Carolina.
This is the second of five Suter Science Seminars this fall, which are made possible by the sponsorship of the Daniel B. Suter Endowment in Biology and the co-sponsorship of supporting programs.
The next seminar is on Oct. 13, and features Dr. Trent Hummel on Targeted Therapies in Pediatric Neuro-Oncology: Lessons from the Past, Hope for the Future.