Not all community-engaged research projects result in mutual capacity and trust building, but a participatory project that looked at drinking water quality in rural Maine accomplished just that. The study took place from 2017 to 2018 and involved the Sipayik Environmental Department (SED), a Passamaquoddy Tribal government department on the Sipayik reservation; researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); and residents from remote Maine communities, including the reservation.

The project was initiated when two MIT graduate students wanted to conduct research that would also benefit an environmental justice community. The students and three researchers from the SED launched a participatory science project in which residents of three remote Maine communities collected drinking water samples from their homes for arsenic and lead analysis. During the study, SED researchers acquired new research skills and enhanced the environmental public health literacy of their rural communities, while MIT researchers acquired community engagement skills and cultural insights. Additionally, trust was built between the communities and MIT. A paper published in late 2020 discusses the mutual capacity building aspect of the project in detail.

The Project’s Beginnings

Before deciding to focus on water quality, MIT researchers held discussions with the SED to gain a better understanding of community public health concerns. When drinking water safety issues quickly emerged as a concern, the SED and MIT researchers decided to analyze metals in both the municipally supplied water and private homeowners’ well water. The study area included three remote coastal communities in northeastern Maine, including the Sipayik reservation.

“We’d heard about the longstanding concerns about drinking water quality, and thought we could help address them,” said Kathleen Vandiver, Ph.D., director of the Community Outreach Education and Engagement Cores at both MIT’s Center for Environmental Health Sciences and Superfund Research Program. “But we wanted to do more than that. We knew we wouldn’t be able to answer all of the community’s questions with just one study, so we wanted to include a focus on the environmental health literacy topic of water quality standards. We also knew that learning by doing tends to increase peoples’ interest in a subject, and when you’ve increased peoples’ interest, they will continue to learn on their own.”

Building Mutual Capacity and Trust Between Maine Communities and Academia

To build capacity within the SED, the MIT team knew community members had to be engaged across the entire research study, but historically, citizen science in drinking water-related research has been limited by the technical complexity associated with analysis techniques. The SED and MIT research teams were not deterred, and capacity was built through a multifaceted approach.

First, the SED researchers were involved in all stages of the research from conceptualization to report-back meetings, and they knew best how to increase involvement for water sample collection. To increase community participation, the researchers prioritized convenience. For example, community members who tested samples from their homes picked up and dropped off water collection kits at well-frequented locations. Additionally, while MIT researchers conducted the sample analysis, they also trained the SED researchers on sample preparation and use of the analytical instruments and involved them in the data analysis. These experiences improved the SED researchers’ capacity to explain the study’s validity to their community, increasing trust through greater transparency.

But the capacity-building was bi-directional. The MIT students increased their capacity to conduct community-engaged research. Through discussions with the SED researchers, the students learned how to engage both tribal and non-tribal community members, publicize the project, communicate complex scientific concepts to the public, and collaborate with local tribal and non-tribal stakeholders.

One of the most important things to come from the project was the trust built between the communities and MIT. In addition to the purposeful approaches described above, other factors helped build this trust:

• The three SED researchers, one non-tribal person and two Native Americans, were community members themselves.
• Community members could easily access the research team throughout the duration of the study.
• Results were reported back to the community through a variety of means.

Getting the Public on Board

The public learned of the research through a multi-pronged approach that began in late 2017 with a well-advertised and well-attended public meeting. During the meeting, the SED and MIT researchers gathered valuable input and explained the purpose of the research, sample collection procedures, and other information. After the meeting, the team reached out to the community with posters placed at community gathering points, such as restaurants and barber shops; advertisements in the local newspaper; home-addressed flyers advertising free water testing; and messages posted to a Facebook page and the tribe’s internal e-messaging board.

After community members joined the study, they collected water samples from their homes. The SED researchers then brought the samples to MIT for analysis. After the analysis, data and remedial action information were shared with each participant individually and through two public meetings led by the MIT and SED researchers to help inform public health decisions.

Paving the Way for Public Action

More than 300 households, representing 29% of homes in the region, participated in the study over 11 months. Vandiver attributes this success, as compared to similar community-engaged research projects in which fewer people participated, to the SED researchers’ roles in building trust among the communities about the project, the face-to-face meetings, the direct outreach, and the factors listed above.

“Both scientists and residents trust the data that was returned,” said Vandiver. “That’s pretty significant because it paves the way for meaningful public action. I think the study provides a great baseline in establishing what’s possible for participatory science.”

The community’s enthusiasm for the study didn’t stop with the end of the project. Participants expressed interest in continuing the partnership and measuring other substances in the municipal drinking water. Both the MIT Center for Environmental Health Sciences and the Superfund Research Program have been invited back to work with the SED to measure other chemicals in the drinking water. Although the sampling methods will be more challenging than they were previously, everyone is looking forward to working together again.