2005 Survey of New England Residents:
A Summary of Responses to Water Resources Issues

In 2005, over 1,000 New England residents completed a 53-question survey designed to assess water quality knowledge (with a particular focus on drinking water), attitudes, actions, and interest in learning more about water issues. Interactions of state of residence, age, and gender were analyzed for significance. The results of this survey provide insight to extension professionals on how to most efficiently focus their time and monetary resources in developing water resources outreach and programming to educate New Englanders on water quality issues. The data collected in the survey can also be used as a baseline to measure the success and progress of water quality programs in future years.

girl drinking water Summary Results: Drinking Water Quality
Survey results indicated that over 99% of respondents believe that clean drinking water is very or extremely important. Over 85% of respondents felt that their home drinking water was safe, but less than 30% of respondents actually have tested their home drinking water and less than 24% of respondents were very aware of factors impacting drinking water and human health.


House on river Summary Results: Ground and Surface Water Quality
41% of respondents felt that the quality of the groundwater in their neighborhood was “good or excellent” or “good and improving.” However, 24% of the respondents replied that they did not know or they had no opinion about the local quality of groundwater. Similarly, 41% of respondents felt that the surface water quality was “good or excellent” or “good and improving.” Only 10% of respondents indicated that they did not know or they had no opinion about the quality of the surface water in their neighborhood. Overall, residents in Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island had the greatest number of respondents who had no opinion or did not know about ground and surface water quality. This distribution may be because these states are more urban and residents may have less access to and contact with local water resources.

montage of people in their yards Summary Results: Changing Behaviors
Over half of the respondents indicated that involving citizens in collecting water quality information was extremely or very important. 59% of respondents reported that they changed their yard watering practices and 43% reported that they changed their use of pesticides within the last few years. Most respondents who wanted to learn more about water quality would read a brochure or a fact sheet (55%) or newspaper articles (43%). Overall, factsheets and brochures, newspaper articles, websites and TV coverage were the ways that greater than 40% of the respondents would be willing to obtain information, with younger people more willing to use the web and older people more willing to read a newspaper article. Less than 10% of the respondents would be willing to attend a one-day short course on water quality.

Conclusions
Based on the results of this survey, several recommendations for Extension professionals were made. Comprehensive, web-based fact sheets and brochures that can be easily understood by residents at all levels of education would be an excellent resource to New Englanders. These fact sheets should contain information on ground and surface water and include tips on how to reduce water use around the home and workplace. The brochures should detail the benefits of these activities and explain why these activities are important. Newspaper columns and websites should be created to include the above information, with newspaper articles targeting older age groups and websites targeting younger age groups. Lastly, extension efforts that focus on residents that are already actively involved in water quality issues and help participants to encourage others to joing is another logical and effective way to increase overall participation in water quality education and outreach. To learn more about this survey download the survey questions and/or the MS thesis: Attitudes, Aptitudes, and Actions of New England Residents About Water Resources Issues.

All information for this article was obtained from: Wawrzynek, J. 2006. Attitudes, aptitudes, and actions of New England residents about water resources issues. (MS Thesis, University of Idaho)