Public Acceptance of Pure Water Soquel, A Groundwater Replenishment and Seawater Intrusion Prevention Project
Abstract
WaterReuse (recycled wastewater for drinking) is proven to be a safe technology for
drinking. However, public acceptance of drinking highly purified wastewater can still
be hard to swallow. In California, water providers like Soquel Water District must
be forward-thinking and secure additional drinking water sources. The sources include
Water reuse. For the coastal California region, seawater intrusion due to climate
change and the over drafting of the groundwater further exacerbates impacts the fresh
drinking water to this region. A sound solution is to replenish the groundwater with
recycled wastewater to prevent sea water intrusion and increase water quality. But
first, the public must understand and accept water reuse, and more importantly at
the community-based level. Soquel Water District operates a Mobile Learning Center
Trailer and an on-site Learning Center. Each center is equipped with visual aids but
no on-site pilot study. After being toured, this project measured the change in public
acceptance. This project is valuable for all water reuse projects but, more specifically,
smaller water reuse projects, where funding pockets are more limited. This project
answers the questions: How effective are visual aids to gain public acceptance of
recycled wastewater for drinking? In California, this new paradigm of potable water
from recycled wastewater has begun, and is here to stay, but only with the help of
public acceptance, to adequately support sustainable water resources. These findings
will help public outreach campaigns by providing mechanisms to increase acceptance
of an alternative water source.
Type
Master's projectPermalink
https://hdl.handle.net/10161/16549Citation
Arredondo, Susana (2018). Public Acceptance of Pure Water Soquel, A Groundwater Replenishment and Seawater
Intrusion Prevention Project. Master's project, Duke University. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/16549.Collections
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