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Groundwater Citizenship and Water Supply Awareness: Investigating Water‐Related Infrastructure and Well Ownership
Author(s) -
Ternes Brock
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
rural sociology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.083
H-Index - 65
eISSN - 1549-0831
pISSN - 0036-0112
DOI - 10.1111/ruso.12179
Subject(s) - groundwater , citizenship , aquifer , water supply , stewardship (theology) , business , population , water infrastructure , environmental planning , water resource management , natural resource economics , environmental science , sociology , environmental engineering , engineering , political science , law , economics , geotechnical engineering , politics , demography
Due to increased demands for irrigation water, the availability of groundwater has been a growing problem in Kansas, where the future of the High Plains aquifer is in jeopardy. This article investigates the environmental stewardship of Kansas well owners, a key social group whose protection of water supplies is pivotal to prolonging groundwater formations. My guiding research question is: Does owning a well lead to a distinct form of citizenship? To answer this, I constructed one of the only data sets of well owners used in sociology by surveying 864 well owners and non–well owners throughout Kansas. My findings reveal that well owners are more aware of the state's water supplies than the general population, they express environmental motivations to conserve water, they deliberately conserve water more often than non–well owners, and well ownership is significantly correlated with highly ranking water security as a challenge facing Kansas. Furthermore, a majority of well owners check their well depth and test for water contamination, routines that connect them to their water supply. This suggests that well owners exhibit “groundwater citizenship” and can be conceptualized as aquifer stewards.