A Survey of Public Perceptions and Attitudes Toward Water in Lubbock

Prepared by Hamed Shirmohammadi

Abstract

Almost no information exists regarding public perceptions and attitudes toward water in Lubbock. This study fills in this gap by providing information about attitudes of people in Lubbock from survey data. From these data, women in Lubbock were found to express greater concerns for the local environmental issues than men. However, men and women were equally concerned about global environmental issues. Those who were more knowledgeable about Lubbock water supply were found to be more likely to support restrictions both for farmers and for the city than those who were not knowledgeable. Texans were found to be more likely to support water restrictions both for the city and for farmers than non-Texans. In fact, the majority of Texans supported water restrictions. We also found that students and non-students were equally worried about Lubbock’s ability to get water in the future.

Introduction                      

This survey establishes a baseline assessment of the attitudes of people in Lubbock toward the city’s water issues. According to some reports Lubbock is among nine cities that are running out of water. A report by U.S. Drought Monitor shows that, among these nine cities, Lubbock has had the worst level of drought since the beginning of 2011 CITATION Sau13 \l 1033   (Sauter & Hess, 2013). By 2014 either new water sources or aggressive water conservation is needed in order to maintain water supply during the summer and by 2025 the existing water supply sources will not be capable of supplying the water demand even if harsh conservation policies are adopted (City of Lubbock, 2013). Currently Lubbock has three water supply sources: Alan Henry Lake, Roberts County well field and Bailey County well field. The well fields are used to pump water up from the Ogallala Aquifer. Lake Alan Henry will run dry in ten years CITATION Ree12 \l 1033  (Reed, 2012) and some studies show that the part of Ogallala which is located in Texas could be depleted in 50 years CITATION Cho13 \l 1033  (Chow, 2013). Lubbock’s municipal authorities, denying these estimations, claim that the city has plans to supply water for the next 100 years.

Lubbock is located in a historically dry area and the prolonged drought has worsened an already dire situation.  Long years of overuse by ranchers, cotton farmers, and fast-growing thirsty cities have depleted water sources. The oil industry's outsize demands on water for fracking have increased the depletion rates. And climate change is exacerbating the situation. The record breaking heat waves in recent years have been further drying out the soil and speeding the desiccation of water sources CITATION Gol13 \l 1033  (Goldenberg, 2013).

While there are multiple factors contributing to the current water crisis, it seems that at least in little cities near oil fields people tend to blame the situation on the oil industry ignoring the complexity of the situation CITATION Gol13 \l 1033  (Goldenberg, 2013). Since there was no study on Lubbock residents’ perception toward the water crisis we did not know how people in Lubbock felt about the situation. We decided to fill this gap by conducting a study on Lubbock residents’ views on the water crisis. We identified the following questions to guide the survey: First, do people think there is a water crisis? Second, if they think there is or will be a water shortage, what do they think has caused the shortage? Third, what measures do they think should be taken to preserve the diminishing water sources? We planned to compare the attitudes of men and women, Texan, non-Texan Americans and international students, and students and non-students toward the water crisis. Our hypotheses about the results of these comparisons were based on the following studies on people’s perceptions on environmental issues:

First, studies that have examined the differences in attitudes of men and women toward environmental issues suggest that women are significantly more concerned about local environmental issues than men. Women have also been found to be more concerned about non-local environmental issues. However the magnitude of difference is not significant (Mohai, 1992).

Second, education and environmental concerns are tightly related. A study on “environmental attitudes and behaviors of American youth” shows that students who know “a lot” about the environment are considerably more likely to be worried about environment than students who have a very limited knowledge about environment, by a 67% to 31% margin (National Environmental Education And Training Foundation, 1994).

Third, according to a study of people’s perception on water conservation, drought is a significant factor that increases people’s receptivity to water conservation (Sochacka, et al. 2013).

In the light of the information provided by above studies the following hypotheses were developed to be examined: First, women are significantly more likely to be concerned with local environmental issues than men. Local environmental issues are those issues that can pose a potential direct threat to the Lubbock community, such as drought, fresh water supply and the effects of fracking. Second, global environmental problems, such as rising sea levels and global warming, concern women and men almost equally. Third, those who are aware of the existence of the severe drought in west Texas and are knowledgeable about Lubbock water are more likely to support water restrictions. Fourth, Texans, unlike non-Texans, tend to oppose drastic conservation policies even if they are necessary. Fifth, the tie between education and environmental concerns suggests that students should have higher environmental awareness than non-students. Sixth, although students have higher environmental awareness, they are less emotionally concerned with the long term consequences of water crisis in Lubbock than residents are. 

Methodology

To examine the above hypotheses we designed a survey. The survey was comprised of 12 questions. The first question asked respondents about their general environmental concerns. Respondents were given nine environmental issues and allowed to choose as many issues as seemed important to them. The next five questions were designed to determine the knowledge level of respondents with regard to fracking and Lubbock’s water sources. Four questions asked them about their views on water restrictions and conservation. One question asked them to identify groups that overused water. The options were farmers, oil drillers and people who water their lawns. They could check as many options as they wanted. The last question asked whether they were worried or confident about Lubbock’s ability to get water in the future.

All four teachers and thirteen students in ESL 5301 participated in data collection. Each interviewer was supposed to survey at least 5 Americans. Another restriction was that at least half of the respondents had to be women. With this restrictions in place a total of 150 individuals were surveyed. There was no restriction in terms of job, ethnicity or age of the respondents. Also there was no restriction on where interviewer could go.

Our method had three major limitations: First, with no restriction on were the interviewers could go, most of them went to their own department buildings and interviewed their fellow students. Therefore, the vast majority of respondents were Texas Tech students. This means that the sample population of this survey cannot be taken to be fully representative of the city’s population. Second, we did not use any method to check if their descriptions of their knowledge level were accurate. Therefore, if they said they were knowledgeable about the issues in question we took them at their words. Third, we did not define “Texan” or “non-Texan” in any exact sense. Therefore, it was up to the respondents how to describe themselves. This applied to those respondents who were born in Texas but raised somewhere else and those who were born somewhere else but raised in Texas. Without an exact definition of “Texan” and “non-Texan” the results of the comparison between Texans and non-Texans should not be accepted without reservation.   

Results

A total of 150 individuals were surveyed. There were equal numbers of male and female respondents (75 male and 75 female) (Appendix II, Chart 1). 73% of respondents were students. 50% of respondents were from Texas, 24% non-Texan Americans and 26% were internationals (Appendix II, Chart 2). This means that the sample population had enough diversity so as to enable us to examine our hypotheses.

We thought women would be significantly more likely to be concerned with local environmental issues than men. Local environmental issues are those issues that can pose a probable direct threat to the Lubbock community. Among nine issues on the survey, four can be identified as local issues:  drought, the effects of fracking, increasing storms and fresh water supply. In fact, almost equal numbers of men and women were concerned with fresh water supply. 47 (63%) male and 46 (61%) female respondents cited Fresh water supply as one of their environmental concerns. Women, however, were more worried about other local issues than were men. 37% of women were concerned about increasing storms and tornadoes, compared to 28% of men. Similarly women were more worried about drought (63%) and fracking (33%) than were men (55% and 27%, respectively) (Appendix II, Chart 3).

We thought that global environmental problems, such as rising sea levels and global warming, would concern women and men almost equally. In fact, our hypothesis turned out to be true. Five out of nine issues on the survey can be considered as global issues including rising sea levels, global warming, increasing flooding, water pollution and air pollution. 27% of women and 25% of men cited rising sea levels as one of the most important issues. Global warming, also, concerned men and woman equally (55% and 53%, respectively). 25% of women and 24% of men were worried about increasing flooding. 69% of women cited water pollution as one of the most important issues, compared to 68% of men. Air pollution was rather different: 71% of men cited it as a concern, compared to 65% of women. Overall, however, the data supported our hypothesis that women and men would be equally concerned about global environmental issues (Appendix II, Chart 3).

Among the nine environmental issues, air pollution was the most important for men. 53 men (71%) cited air pollution as the most important issue (compared with 49 women (65%)). For women, the most important issue was water pollution. 52 women (69%) checked it as most important issue, compared to 51 men (68%)). Overall, water pollution was the first and air pollution was the second most important issue. 69% of respondents cited water pollution and 68% cited air pollution as the most important issue. (Appendix II, Chart 4)

 Our third hypothesis was that those who were knowledgeable about Lubbock water would be more likely to support water restrictions. In fact, our hypothesis was true. Those who were more knowledgeable about Lubbock water were more likely to support water restrictions for the city of Lubbock. 68% of those who described themselves as very knowledgeable about where Lubbock gets its water supply said they believed in water restrictions for Lubbock, compared to 66% of those who were somehow knowledgeable and only 35% of those who were not very knowledgeable. This was in accord with our hypothesis. However, we found another correlation that somehow undermined the correlation between being knowledgeable and being pro-restrictions. The correlation in question was between being knowledgeable and being opposed to restrictions. Those who were more knowledgeable about Lubbock water were more likely to be opposed to restrictions. 32% of those who describe themselves as very knowledgeable were opposed to water restriction for Lubbock, compared to 12% of those who were somewhat knowledgeable and only 8% of those who were not very knowledgeable.

 What was even more confusing was that those who not only were knowledgeable about where Lubbock gets its water, but also knew where it is getting its water now and  knew about Lake Meredith were more likely to be opposed to water restrictions for the city of Lubbock. 37% of these respondents were opposed to water restrictions.

We thought Texans were more likely to be opposed to conservation policies than non-Texas. In fact, Texans were found to be more likely to support water restrictions than non-Texans. 71% of Texans said they believed in water restriction for the city of Lubbock, compared to 44% of non-Texans. 12% of Texans were opposed to water restrictions for Lubbock, compared to 19% of non-Texans.

Texans also were more likely to support water restrictions for farmers than non-Texans (Americans and internationals). 40% of Texans said they believed in water restrictions for farmers, compared to 32% of non-Texans. Texans, however, were more likely to be opposed to water restrictions for farmers than were non-Texans. 35% of Texans were opposed to water restrictions for farmers, compared to 29% of non-Texans. However, the majority of Texans supported water restrictions for farmers (40% vs. 35%) and for the city (71% vs. 12%) (Appendix II, Chart 5).

Texan non-students were more likely to support water restrictions for the city of Lubbock than Texan students. 81% of Texan non-students supported restrictions for the city, compared to 67% of Texan students.  Also, Texan non-students were more likely to support water restrictions for farmers than Texan students. 47% of Texan non-students supported water restrictions for farmers, compared to 37% of Texan students.

We believed students would be less emotionally concerned with the long term consequences of water crisis in Lubbock than residents. In fact, there was not any significant difference between students and non-students in regard with how they felt about Lubbock’s ability to get water in the future.  61% of students were worried about Lubbock’s ability to get water in the future, compared with 59% of non-students.

Overall, 60% of respondents said they were worried about Lubbock’s ability to get water in the future.

Discussion

Our results show that women were more concerned with local environmental issues than men; while men and women were equally concerned about global issues. However, one issue about these results needs to be pointed out. The questionnaire asked respondents to check the most important environmental issues, not the issues that most worried them. In order to examine our hypotheses we interpreted the most important issues as the most worrisome ones. But the interpretation might be found questionable. One might find some issue very important without being worried about it. However, it does not seem implausible to assume that if one thinks some issue is one of the most important issues, then he is likely to care about that issue. This argument does not brush the worries about the interpretation aside. Those worries are legitimate and the above results should not be accepted without some reasonable reservations about the interpretation on which they rely.

One of the interesting results was that the most important environmental issue for the respondents was a global issue that has no bearings on Lubbock’s environmental issues. As reported earlier, 69% of respondents cited water pollution as the most important environmental issue. This is not an urgent issue in Lubbock. What is urgent is fresh water supply. But the issue of fresh water supply was not even the second most important issue. The second most important issue was air pollution (68%). Fresh water supply was only the third most important issue (62%).The fact that the two most important environmental issues were global issues which were not directly connected with Lubbock’s most important issue needs an explanation. One explanation for this fact is that the majority of our respondents were students (73%). Most students do not come from Lubbock and will leave the city after graduation. So, it is not surprising that they were more concerned with global issues instead of Lubbock water.

The fact that those who were knowledgeable about Lubbock water were more likely to support water restrictions was expected. The correlation between being knowledgeable and being pro-restrictions was established by other studies (Sochacka, N.W., et al., 2013). However, we found another correlation that seemed baffling. Those who were more knowledgeable were more likely to be opposed to water restrictions for the city of Lubbock. This baffling correlation might be the result of a limitation of our method. As stated in the method section, we did not check if the respondents were really knowledgeable. We took them at their words. Some of those who described themselves as very knowledgeable might have been mistaken about their knowledge level. Our method, therefore, did not eliminate the possibility that some respondents who were not knowledgeable about Lubbock water described themselves as very knowledgeable. These respondents might have been those who were opposed to restrictions for Lubbock water. 

Another explanation for the correlation in question is that someone who is knowledgeable about the source of Lubbock water might be ignorant about the current water crisis in west Texas. We did not ask respondents if they were knowledgeable about water issues in the area. Rather we asked if they were knowledgeable about where Lubbock gets its water supply. Therefore, the correlation might be a result of the fact that some of the people who were knowledgeable about where Lubbock gets its water supply were not knowledgeable about the water issues in the area. These respondents might have been those who were opposed to water restrictions for Lubbock.

We found that Texans were more likely to support water restrictions for farmers and the city than non-Texans. Texans, however, were more likely to oppose water restrictions for farmers (35%, compared to 25% of non-Texans). Overall, the majority of Texans supported the water restrictions for farmers (40% vs. 35%) and for the city (71% vs. 12%). As the figures show, the percentage of Texans who supported water restrictions for the city of Lubbock was bigger than the percentage of Texans who supported the water restrictions for farmers by a margin of 71% to 40%.

We did not expect any of these results. However, we found an even more surprising one: Texan non-students were more likely to support water restrictions for farmers and for the city than Texan students. One explanation for this fact is that typically, Texan non-students have been in Lubbock for a longer time than students and they will live here for a longer time. Therefore, Texan non-students are more likely to be emotionally concerned with Lubbock water issue than students are. This means that their serious concerns about Lubbock’s ability to get water in the future might outweigh their traditional attitudes toward water as the property of the landowner. Another explanation might be that they have never had such traditional attitudes toward water. We, however, do not have enough data to reject either of these explanations.

We found that students were more likely to be worried about Lubbock water than non-students. Although the difference between students and non-students was not significant in this case (61% vs. 59%), it might seem that our hypothesis about students being less emotionally concerned with water crisis in Lubbock was false. However we do not think that these data can falsify our hypothesis. Our findings show that students and non-students were almost equally worried about Lubbock’s ability to get water in the future. Our hypothesis, on the other hand, was about students and the residents of Lubbock, not students and non-students. We did not ask respondents if they were from Lubbock. Therefore we do not have enough data to confirm or falsify our hypothesis.

To avoid problems like those discussed above, future research on this subject, should take into consideration the following points:

To make sure that the sample population is representative of Lubbock’s residents, there should be limitations on where each interviewer can go to get the respondents. Different interviewers should go to different places in the city.

The questionnaire should collect more information about respondents. This means the questions that are meant to identify the respondents should be more fine-grained. For example, to examine the hypothesis that students and residents have different feelings toward the water crisis, we need to know if the respondent is a permanent resident of Lubbock, how long they have been in Lubbock and things like these.

In order to find meaningful correlations between the level of environmental awareness and other factors, for example the attitude toward water conservation, the level of awareness needs to be determined by objective criteria rather than relying on respondents’ assessments of their knowledge level.

Bibliography

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Chow, D. (2013, August 26). Huge aquifer that runs through 8 states quickly being tapped out. LiveScience. Retrieved September 14, 2013, from: http://www.nbcnews.com/science/huge-aquifer-runs-through-8-states-quickly-being-tapped-out-8C11009320

Goldenberg, S. (2013, August 11). A Texan tragedy: ample oil, no water. The Guardian. Retrieved September 10, 2013, from: http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/aug/11/texas-tragedy-ample-oil-no-water

Mohai, P. (1992). Men, women, and the environment: An examination of the gender gap in environmental concern and activism. Society & Natural Resources, Vol. 5, Iss. 1, pp. 1-19.

National Environmental Education and Training Foundation. (1994). Environmental Attitudes And Behaviors of American Youth. Retrieved November 20, 2013 From: http://eelink.net/ROPER/TOC.html

Reed, A. (2012, February 9). Lubbock water crisis, how did we get here? KCBD Retrieved September 20, 2013, from: http://www.kcbd.com/story/16903788/lubbocks-water-crisis-how-did-we-get-here

Sauter, M. B., & Hess, A. E. (2013, August 1). Nine cities running out of water. 24/7 Wall Street. Retrieved September 20, 2013, from: http:/247wallst.com/Special-report/2013/08/01/nine-cities-running-out-of-water

Sochacka, N.W., et al. (2013). Public perceptions of water availability and receptivity to water conservation in Georgia. Proceedings of the 2013 Georgia Water Resources Conference. Retrieved November 30, 2013, from: http://www.gwri.gatech.edu/sites/default/files/files/docs/2013/1.6.2_Sochacka.pdf

Appendix I http://lubbockwaterstudy.blogspot.com/2013/12/survey.html