USA HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -Famine, disease and conflict with local Native American tribes in the first two years brought Jamestown to the brink of failure before the arrival of a new group of settlers and supplies in 1610.

Detailed explanation-2: -The scientists are finding that the Jamestown aquifer water contains high, but varying, levels of arsenic. But arsenic may be far down on a list of problems that include high salinity, various metals and fecal contamination from the colonists’ latrines.

Detailed explanation-3: -Hancock, Kaste and an undergraduate geology student, Doug Rowland, are finding that Jamestown’s drinking water was abysmal, and not just by today’s standards: Indeed, it might have significantly contributed to the starving time’s devastation.

Detailed explanation-4: -High tide brings saline water in from the Chesapeake Bay. Even at low tide, the salt content of the water is too great for drinking. The settlers dug wells, but they never dug them deep enough nor in the proper location. As a result, their wastes contaminated much of their drinking water.