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Surprising Water Quality Study May Save Millions
Author(s) -
Mellem James W.,
Miller Ellen G.
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
opflow
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1551-8701
pISSN - 0149-8029
DOI - 10.1002/j.1551-8701.2003.tb01728.x
Subject(s) - club , newspaper , recreation , public park , liberian dollar , water quality , fecal coliform , quality (philosophy) , public administration , business , advertising , geography , political science , environmental planning , law , finance , philosophy , epistemology , medicine , ecology , biology , anatomy
This article describes how the Kansas City, Missouri, Water Services Department (WSD) handled an unexpected major public image problem. After the city upgraded a fashionable part of the city, the 1920s Country Club Plaza area, negative newspaper articles reported that high fecal coliform samples had been taken from the stream that flows through the plaza. The samples showed that public expectations concerning recreational water quality in the stream were not always met. WSD maintained a low profile and, instead of launching a public relations blitz or asking the mayor and city council to pass a mutimillion dollar bond issue, WSD decided to sponsor carefully designed, extensive research.