Oregon DEQ: Southern Willamette Valley Groundwater Management Area Outreach and Survey
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Date
2017-06-09
Authors
Dales, Sam
Fiorelli, Thomas
Gil, Ryan
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Abstract
The Southern Willamette Valley Groundwater Management Area (SWV GWMA) is a 230- square mile boundary that begins at the northern edge of the Eugene/Springfield metropolitan area and extends 100 miles north to Corvallis. In 2001, more than twenty percent of five hundred groundwater drinking samples contained nitrate levels that exceeded Oregon’s limit of (7 ppm) of what the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) considers to be safe for consumption; the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has a threshold of 10 ppm. Over 21,000 residents in the growing cities of Coburg and Junction City, as well as the rural areas in between, rely on this groundwater as their sole source of drinking water.
In 2004, Oregon DEQ designated the SWV GWMA. DEQ formed a stakeholder group known as the Groundwater Management Area Committee, which represents a cross-section of land use sectors in the region. The SWV GWMA Committee makes action and policy recommendations to help guide and inform efforts to reduce nitrate contamination in the SWV GWMA. The Committee partners with many regional associations, city governments, universities, and private landowners. DEQ and another GWMA stakeholder, Lane Council of Governments (LCOG), are the project clients and sponsors funding all research and providing access to information databases.
Perceptions regarding contamination of groundwater vary widely. Rural residents within the SWV GWMA who took part in public focus groups strongly associated color, smell, and taste with safe drinking water. The issue with nitrate contamination in groundwater is that it is colorless, odorless, and tasteless. This study’s primary research questions focused on the differences and relationships between knowledge and behaviors. Understanding this relationship is important because encouraging people to make behavioral changes that benefit their health requires that they first have complete information on the potential risks associated with drinking water contaminated with nitrate.
In terms of knowledge, the focus is on answering the following questions: 1) how many people know that a problem exists, 2) to what extent are people concerned about the problem, and 3) whether either of the first two factors are associated with demographics.
In terms of behavior, interest centers on 1) how many people test their water for nitrate and know the risk level in their household, 2) how many people have installed a treatment system that effectively removes nitrate, and 3) which media sources do different demographics use to connect with the world.
Description
Examining Committee: Benjamin Clark and Mark Nystrom
Keywords
Groundwater management, Nitrates, Water pollution, Environmental policy