Arid Inland Community Survey on Water Knowledge, Trust, and Potable Reuse. I: Description of Findings

Abstract

Planned potable water reuse has the potential to improve the sustainability and reliability of water supplies, but implementation has faced public acceptance challenges. Although the US Department of the Interior has predicted that hot spots of conflict over water are highly likely in the arid inland western US, significant knowledge gaps exist regarding public perceptions of potable reuse and understanding of water-related topics in this context. This study aims to fill these gaps with a large-scale (n=1,831) survey in Albuquerque, New Mexico, to determine public acceptance of two types of potable reuse and collect data on the population’s climate and water-related knowledge, water use at home, level of trust in institutions, and demographics. The survey was developed and refined through a series of community focus groups and debriefing sessions, and the response rate was 46%. This population had higher overall levels of acceptance of potable reuse and awareness of water scarcity-related issues compared with coastal populations from other studies, with implications for design of education and outreach programming.