Small Communities, Big Challenges
Rural Environmental Public Health Needs Prize Competition
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Overview
Local governments are on the frontlines for working with rural communities on environmental public health issues. Rural communities across America have unique perspectives on pressing environmental and public health issues their community faces, particularly on issues that are not well understood, challenging to address, and need additional scientific understanding.
To gain a better understanding of environmental and public health challenges facing rural communities, EPA and our partners launched the “Small Communities, Big Challenges” Competition. The goal of this competition is for local governments to identify innovative and effective ways to holistically engage rural communities around environmental health issues and to identify any associated barriers to better protecting human health. Through increased engagement, this competition would ideally help local governments and communities better identify and understand rural community-based environmental public health issues, which may help in the protection of the community’s environmental public health. EPA and our partners will use the solutions from this competition to learn of unique or innovative strategies for engaging with rural communities and of the environmental public health issues that rural communities are faced with. Local governments that participate in the competition will demonstrate their innovative strategies for engaging rural communities and present collaboratively identified findings from these engagements through a brief engagement strategy report and a communications product.
Partners
- U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)
- Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies (AFWA)
- Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO)
- National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO)
- National Environmental Health Association (NEHA)
Winners
Note: The descriptions and communications products below are taken from the winning submissions and do not necessarily represent the views or the policies of the U.S. EPA.
Building on Bithlo's Transformation
Orange County, Florida—Florida Department of Health
Submitters: David Overfield, Kent Donahue, Patrick Harrington, and Brooke Stewart with the Florida Department of Health Orange and Tim McKinney with United Global Outreach
Communications Product: Video - DOH-Orange, Building on Bithlo’s Transformation
Project Summary:
- Environmental Issue: The Bithlo community primarily faces environmental issues related to groundwater quality (high levels of hydrogen sulfide, iron, and junkyard chemicals) and climate-related heat temperatures. This community also experiences the negative health effects of generational poverty, scarcity of employment, poor housing, and food insecurity.
- Community Engagement Strategy: United Global Outreach partnered with representatives from Advent Health to meet with the residents of Bithlo and discuss their needs and priorities. These community meetings called the “Look, Love & Listen tour” took place in houses of worship and the community center where 400 to 500 residents would meet to have spaghetti and share their challenges.
- Barriers: Income, transportation, and availability of nutritious food, as well as poorly insulated and non-airconditioned trailers that put residents at risk of heat-related illnesses were a few of the barriers mentioned in the report.
- Transferability: This approach could be transferred to other communities that have the right leader who is passionate about those they are serving, given that this project was born out of a strong sense of community.
COVID-19 Indoor Air Quality In Area School Districts
Logan County, Ohio—Logan County Health District
Submitters: Arie Pequignot, Travis Irvan, Tim Smith, and Boyd Hoddinott with the Logan County Health District
Communications Product: Logan County Infographic (pdf)
Project Summary:
- Environmental Issue: Logan County Health District sought to identify how they could prevent the spread of COVID-19 in four Logan County school districts (Bellefontaine City Schools, Riverside Local Schools, Benjamin Logan Local Schools, and Indian Lake Local Schools) while still allowing children to gain the social and mental benefits of attending classes in-person.
- Community Engagement Strategy: Logan County Health District partnered with superintendents and other school leaders to formulate an approach to get students to return to the classroom in a safe manner that included weekly virtual meetings, research on how COVID-19 spread, indoor air quality analysis and the implementation of UV lights and HVAC units to mitigate the spread of the virus.
- Barriers: Cost and maintenance of UV lights and HVAC units are concerns to consider when using this strategic approach.
- Transferability: This approach could be used in other indoor environments including school districts, doctors’ offices, churches, and businesses.
Dunn County, Wisconsin--Groundwater Contamination Study
Dunn County, Wisconsin—Dunn County Land & Water Conservation Division
Submitters: Heather Wood with Dunn County Land & Water Conservation Division and Kaitlin Ingle with the Dunn County Health Department
Communications Product: Dunn County Outreach Flyer (pdf) & Dunn County Postcard (pdf)
Project Summary:
- Environmental Issue: Over half the Dunn County population relies on unregulated private wells as their primary source of drinking water, and over 36% of the land in the county is being used for row crop agriculture. A major environmental concern in the county is groundwater contamination which disproportionately impacts low-income individuals due to the financial burdens that are placed on individuals looking to fix this problem—including price of testing and the price of treating contaminated water.
- Community Engagement Strategy: To promote testing, the Dunn County Land & Water Conservation Division in partnership with Health Dunn Right created materials that were shared on social media platforms and physically distributed in more rural villages. Many town clerks aided in this distribution as well, by including them with property tax bills or having them posted and available during the fall and spring elections. Additionally, they made postcards that were mailed to nearly every household within Dunn County.
- Barriers: By offering these tests for free, it removed the financial barriers that some residents may have run into trying to get their water tested. Nitrate and arsenic are both odorless and colorless. Prolonged use or exposure can lead to a variety of health issues health, but due to its invisible nature, many do not perceive contamination as an issue.
- Transferability: The transferability of this project is relatively universal because the main method of connection was meeting the participants where they were in all phases of the project—through social media, mail, email, online sign-up forms, direct calls, etc.
Meeting the Clay County Community Where They Are On Plastic Recycling
Clay County, West Virginia—Clay County Health Department
Submitters: Angela Brown, Robin Boggs, Courtney Holcomb-Bennett, Jacob Pennington, Phillena Frame, Anita Workman, Kari Osborne, and Donna Davenport with the Clay County Health Department
Communications Product: Clay County Infographic (pdf)
Project Summary:
- Environmental Issue: This community’s environmental issue is access to plastic recycling and preventing plastics from reaching local streams by litter control. This issue affects wildlife and human health through potential exposure to microplastics, and it also necessitates production of new plastic materials which is resource intensive.
- Community Engagement Strategy: Clay County completed a Community Health Needs Assessment, which included an evaluation of what were important environmental issues to the public.
- Barriers: Costs associated with the purchase of recycling containers and the contract hauling services to take recycling away were potential economic barriers that were addressed by introducing recycling as a no-cost option. Cultural barriers were addressed by highlighting how plastic recycling contributes to healthy soils for local gardens.
- Transferability: The introduction of no-cost recycling also highlighted how transferrable this project is to other communities facing similar public health issues.
Radon Testing in the North Woods--What is That? I Could Have That?
Oconto County, Wisconsin—Oconto County Public Health
Submitter: Heather Blum with Oconto County Public Health
Communications Product: Oconto County Social Media (pdf)
Project Summary:
- Environmental Issue: High radon levels are an issue in Oconto County and could potentially impact any homeowner due to the ability of radon to invade the foundation of a home regardless of socioeconomic factors. This meant that any home without mitigation factors was potentially at risk, especially some of Oconto’s particularly rural areas which were burdened with higher levels of radon.
- Community Engagement Strategy: Oconto County Public Health partnered with a few municipalities in the county including the Towns of Little Suamico, Riverview, Mountain, Townsend, the City of Oconto Falls and the Village of Suring, to distribute tests for radon. The approach was simple—use town clerks as partners who are trusted members of the community to help get radon home tests out to residents. This method was effective because their communities are small, and everyone knows their town clerk from activities around town, meaning this was a natural location from which to distribute tests. They also used printed materials, social media, websites, press releases, and local radio and television to promote testing.
- Barriers: To address access and cost barriers, they made tests locally available and reduced the costs by discounting the tests during certain months. They distributed about 150 tests which was about a four-fold increase over the average of 37 tests distributed in the last five years. Each test also came with an informational sheet about how to test and where to find more information which addressed lack of knowledge in communities with limited access to testing services and low literacy about the topic.
- Transferability: This solution could be adopted by other communities with ease, using targeted planning and outreach efforts.
Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions in the Foothills Region Through Creative Food Recovery "Freedges"
Whatcom, Washington—Whatcom County Health and Community Services
Submitters: Ali Jensen and Erica Littlewood with Whatcom County Health and Community Services, Noelle Beecroft with Washington State University Extension Whatcom County, and Brandi Hutton and Jenna Deane with Sustainable Connections Toward Zero Waste Program.
Communications Product: Whatcom County Infographic (pdf)
Project Summary:
- Environmental Issue: In East Whatcom County (EWC), food waste makes up 29.3% of the solid waste stream making this is an environmental issue. When food is deposited in a landfill and decomposes, the byproducts of this decomposition lead to the emission of greenhouse gases.
- Community Engagement Strategy: Building from a graduate student-developed East Whatcom County Food Landscape Assessment (which assessed the food access barriers and opportunities in East Whatcom) and years of community engagements and discussions (among local residents, farmers, business owners, and non-profit leaders at the first Foothills Food Summit), the EWC drafted an implementation workplan, which highlighted the need for a community “freedge” that would offer free, surplus food from restaurants to residents in the Foothills that would also reduce food waste.
- Barriers: Operational and maintenance costs for the refrigerators (“freedge”) are potential barriers to consider.
- Transferability: This approach could be duplicated in rural communities that are hoping to reduce food waste and increase the availability of nutritious foods for residents provided they have the funds to operate and maintain the refrigerators.
Using the "Marathon Method" to Tackle Elevated Nitrates in Municipal Drinking Water Supplies
Marathon County, Wisconsin—Marathon County Conservation Planning and Zoning Department
Submitters: Kirstie Heidenreich and Andrew Shep with Marathon County Conservation, Planning, and Zoning Department, Dale Grosskurth with Marathon County Health Department, Andrew Aslesen with the Wisconsin Rural Water Association, and Allen Belter with the Village of Athens, Wisconsin
Communications Product: Video - Small Communities, Big Challenges | Marathon County, WI Submission
Project Summary:
- Environmental Issue: The Village of Athens faces increasing levels of nitrates in the municipal drinking water supply due to shallow ground water, a land use dominated by heavy agriculture and countless failing or nonexistent septic systems.
- Community Engagement Strategy: “The Marathon Method” involved working with landowners and farmers that own and operate land surrounding the Athens municipal wells to discuss long-term solutions to change land use from conventional row cropping to a form of agriculture (growth of perennial grasses) that would eliminate the application of nitrogen rich nutrients near wells.
- Barriers: Cultural and financial barriers to testing wells for nitrates.
- Transferability: Communities with predominantly conventional cropping systems (which use high levels of commercial fertilizer and manure).
2023 Lower Snake River HAB Response
Whitman County, Washington—Whitman County Public Health
Submitters: Maddy Lucas, Chris Skidmore, and Wyatt Armstrong with Whitman County Public Health
Communications Product: Whitman County Algal Blooms Website
Project Summary:
- Environmental Issue: Whitman County Public Health (WCPH) had a significant algal bloom on the Snake River, which is commonly used for outdoor recreational activities including swimming, boating, kayaking, and paddle boarding. This harmful algal bloom (HAB) concerned community members because it posed threats to local ecosystems and human health.
- Community Engagement Strategy: WCPH performed cyanobacteria testing, posted warning signs, sent out health advisories to local healthcare providers and media, reached out to the local university, and partnered with local agencies through a combination of providing updates regarding the HAB, and providing guidance on management of the HAB.
- Barriers: With Whitman County being a rural county, many challenges stood in the way of effectively monitoring the harmful algal bloom and future potential blooms—primarily the lack of trained staff, funding, geographical barriers, and communication barriers.
- Transferability: WCPH developed key protocols for communication and sampling which could be transferred to other groups that have a role to play in the monitoring of the Snake River as it travels through multiple states and counties.
Resources
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Rural Communities Definitions
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CASTNET is an internal EPA group that provides information on atmosphere mercury pollutions. SCBC applicants may find this information helpful as they complete their applications. Also see the CASTNET EPA web page.
- Webinar recording
- SCBC Webinar Slides (pdf)
- SCBC Webinar Frequently Asked Questions (pdf)
Contact
If you have questions about the Small Communities, Big Challenges Competition, please email SCBCCompetition@epa.gov.
To help raise awareness of the competition, please use #SCBCCompetition in your social media posts.