Ella Lewis: Using engineering and science communication to better Appalachia’s water

The following story was written in Fall 2025 by Max Painchaud in ​ENGL ​4824​: Science Writing ​as part of a collaboration between the English department and the Center for Communicating Science.

Before Appalachia saw the worst of Hurricane Helene, it was already flooding.

    At 10 a.m. on September 25, 2024, Helene became an official hurricane, bringing historic rainfall to the Southern United States, and within one day, record-breaking rains flooded various parts of Appalachia (Mulcahy, 2025). By the time Hurricane Helene ended four days later, its effects had taken root in the New River Valley.

    Shortly after, the New River Valley was put on a boil water advisory, with residents urged to boil any water before using it for cooking or consumption. For 12 days, residents of the NRV received updates about the water status as panic rose about the longevity of the situation. For many, it was their first experience with water contamination.

    For others, boil water advisories were not surprising, but routine, says Ella Lewis. What was a small moment of panic and uncertainty for residents of the New River Valley is a constant reality for others. Lewis, an undergraduate student in the Department of Biological Systems Engineering at Virginia Tech, is helping combat these issues through her research on spring water quality in Appalachia.

    Originally from Amherst, Virginia, Lewis’ interest in engineering and the environment began at a young age. Before college, Lewis was a part of her county’s 4H Livestock Club and loved math and science.

    “I started thinking, if I could combine those interests of doing something more agriculture related, and do math and science too, I’d want to major in that. Biological systems engineering is exactly that,” she explains.

    Lewis was motivated to research water quality after an internship with the Virginia Water Resources Research Center on the Virginia Tech campus last spring. She was also motivated to study Appalachian water following Blacksburg’s boil water advisory after Hurricane Helene.

    “I felt that there was a lot of confusion about the boil water advisory that we experienced in Blacksburg, which is something that some communities face daily,” she says. “Many Blacksburg residents were questioning what was happening and what it meant.”

    During the internship, she created educational resources about boil water advisories and water treatment with Virginia Cooperative Extension. Additionally, she developed these resources with Erin Ling’s Virginia Household Water Quality Program (VAHWQP). Ling is a senior extension specialist in the Department of Biological Systems Engineering at Virginia Tech.

    As her interest in water quality grew, she connected with Leigh-Anne Krometis, a professor and Turner Faculty Fellow in the Department of Biological Systems Engineering at Virginia Tech, who studies and creates solutions for water quality problems in Appalachia.

    Lewis also took part in a semester-long internship at the Virginia Water Resources Research Center where she and her colleagues spoke with policymakers in Washington D.C. about the critical water quality issues their constituents face every day.

    “It was very eye opening because you don’t always think about the way that science and policy interact, but it’s very important,” Lewis says.

    This valuable experience led to Lewis’ current research in the Krometis lab, which focuses on understanding the water quality and safety of unregulated roadside and spring water sources used by Appalachians.

    “Some people resort to these unregulated sources because they might be on municipal or well water and think it tastes bad or has contaminants in it,” she explains. “They prefer water that seems like it’s coming from a spring. Some people also use it for aesthetic reasons and like the idea of the ‘all natural’ kind of water.”

    No matter the reason people use them, unregulated roadside and spring water sources are potentially harmful to those drinking water from them. The water sometimes contains contaminants like E. coli, metals, and total coliform, which is a measure of a large group of various bacteria.

    To better understand this issue, Lewis and the Krometis lab collect water samples from roadside springs across Virginia, West Virginia, and other parts of Appalachia to test pH, conductivity, metals, and bacteria. In the lab, the research team tests and analyzes water samples and sends samples to other labs for further investigation and collaborative research projects.

    The research team also compares the water samples’ pH levels, metals, and bacteria count numbers to water regulation standards set by organizations like the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Interestingly, the standards set by the EPA’s Safe Drinking Water Act do not apply to private water sources like wells and springs, despite private water supplies serving 23-43 million Americans in rural areas (Lytle et. al, 2025).

    In a recent study done by Krometis and other researchers, total coliform was present in 41 percent of private household water supplies (wells and springs), and E. coli was present in 9 percent of water samples collected in counties like Roanoke and Franklin in Southwest Virginia (Lytle et. al, 2025).

    If the research team finds high levels of a certain contaminant in spring samples, they attempt to inform the individuals using that water about its potential dangers and precautions they can take — but knowing who drinks the water is not always easy.

    Increasing the availability of water quality information is one way they overcome this challenge. The Krometis lab is currently creating educational resources that explain what contaminants are in the water, how they compare to EPA standards, and effective water treatments individuals can do on their own. The lab is hoping to distribute the information through websites and print materials, the latter of which will be especially important for those lacking access to technology.

    Lewis says that collecting water quality data helps engineers design infrastructure that could reduce contamination and can shed light on the geological or anthropogenic sources causing the issue in the first place.

    “Through this project, I learned about a whole other branch of engineering — public health engineering,” Lewis explains. “Now I know that water testing is used to provide information to justify improving the existing water infrastructure in certain places.” 

    Lewis’ engineering project with Krometis is currently at the research and data collection stage.

    “Right now, we’re collecting water quality information that could potentially be informative for people working on the infrastructure side of things,” says Lewis.

    Unfortunately, global environmental issues like climate change are worsening Appalachia’s ongoing water quality problems. Climate change is causing large flooding events to become more frequent, and factors like Appalachia’s mountainous terrain can exacerbate ongoing water quality issues when natural disasters occur (Pacific Institute, 2023).

    As water quality worsens in Appalachia, educating people about their water quality is important but can be challenging. Lewis emphasized that translating research into digestible information to the public can be difficult if researchers do not use effective communication procedures.

    “You get a report of your drinking water, and it's a bunch of letters and numbers like ‘ppb’ and ‘ppm.’ People might see 1000 ppb of chloride and ask, ‘What does that mean?’” Lewis says.

    Additionally, Lewis says it can be challenging to explain that their goal is to improve Appalachian water, rather than restrict it.

    “We’ve been worried that people may not want to talk to us because they're scared we're not going to let them drink the water anymore,” Lewis explains, “but that’s not what we’re trying to do. We want to inform people of the quality of the water they're drinking and then let them know what they can do to make it safer for themselves.”

    At the state and national level, Lewis’ ongoing research could inform policymakers about infrastructure inequities among state residents and motivate lawmakers to invest in Appalachian water research.

    Collaborating with other researchers and labs to further research is also an important aspect in this research field.

    “The Discovery Lab at Virginia Tech is doing some research to see what organisms are present in [Appalachian spring] water,” Lewis says. “It’s interesting to be able to pass the information on to other researchers and then see how they view it and what they do with it.”

    Lewis also looks forward to future collaborations with the Virginia Household Water Quality Program. Together, they are creating a program for high school students that allows the students to visit a real research lab, learn about ongoing work, and even bring well water samples from their homes for testing.

    Lewis plans to graduate in Spring 2026 and will begin her Master’s degree starting in Fall 2026. While Lewis will not continue with this specific project, her master’s research will continue in the field of public health engineering with Krometis, analyzing the quality of well water across various Appalachian counties near Virginia Tech. Like roadside springs, wells are unregulated water sources that can harbor contaminants.

    Lewis says she is very fond of and grateful for her experiences in undergraduate research and is excited for the opportunity to continue her education. Although solving the world’s water quality issues will continue long after she graduates, Lewis looks forward to being part of a dedicated community of researchers, policymakers, and everyday people working to improve water infrastructure and communication in Appalachia.

    “Water is the only universally important thing to every person every day,” Lewis says. “It's always going to be important to have clean water.”