Lubbock Water Study
Kong Qingchen
ABSTRACT
It is a common idea that in Texas and Colorado, the water resources have declined in recent years. And we were a group which was doing a research in order to find out how people felt about the Lubbock water situation. We did a survey about the situation of water in Lubbock, and by analyzing this survey, we find out that there are some different views between men and women; students and non-students; Texas residents and international residents
Introduction
It is a common idea that in the West part of the U.S., especially in Texas and Colorado, the water resources have declined in recent years. According to a group that monitors drought conditions, Texas has averaged the worst level of drought since the beginning of 2011 (Sauter and Hess, 2013). So as we can see, we are facing a water shortage problem in Lubbock. Based on a report by the Lubbock Water Department, Lubbock’s water currently comes from three sources, well fields in Roberts County; another well field in Bailey County and the third one is Lake Allen Henry. And according to the report, there was another water source named Lake Meredith in 2011, but it dried up in 2012. This situation is severe, and as we can imagine, if the drought still exists here, severe water shortages will become a reality. And we are going to find out Lubbock residents’ views on water resources.
As we all know drought and water shortage will cause many problems, especially in agriculture. Long periods of drought will cause a large number of crop failures, and even wildfires. Second, drought will affect some industries which need more water, and make many operational problems for them, and they may even need to relocate their factory (West, n. d). And overuse of water is a major cause of the drought.
Some people say now towns in West Texas like Lubbock are facing a grim reality; water is so scarce that almost 15 million people need water rationing (Goldenberg, 2013). As in Lubbock, Lake Meredith, which I have mentioned above, used to be a main water resource of Lubbock, and dried up in 2012. Therefore, the Mayor of Lubbock came out and announced to the public about limiting and saving water (Reed, 2012). And this situation makes more and more citizens recognize the importance of water resources. Many factors contributed to the present condition, such as fewer water sources, increasing population, inconsiderate use, water-sapping cotton farming, historically low rainfall, climate change, oil industry overuse of water and fracking (Fleming, 2012).
Nowadays, more and more people realize that the importance of water resources, and more and more people have began to save water by themselves. In Lubbock, the water shortage has been a problem that plagued government and residents, and this problem is getting worse in recent years. So we hope by doing this report we would know people's thoughts about the water situation in Lubbock on the one hand, and on the other hand, we can remind people to protect our water resources.
Hypotheses
So as we can see, Lubbock has a water crisis, and we are very interested in how many people know about this situation and what they will say if we tell them. Some people might say, “I do not care about this”, however, some other people may say “I will pay attention to this stuff”. We want to know which is the most serious environmental problems that people identify. And how people feel about Lubbock’s ability to get water in the future. People might think that the water shortage is the most serious environmental problem in Lubbock, and most people might be worried about the water supply problem in Lubbock.
We are also interested in how people feel about limiting water, and what about different views between residents and students, or men and women? I think men will be more focused on long-term interests, to protect groundwater and other water resources, while women pay more attention to the current situation; they are more concerned about the water situation of water resources, and they are more worried about whether water is not enough for them. So we thought that men would have more knowledge about Lubbock water supply, and we expected that men might be more worried about the water situation in Lubbock.
As for comparing students and non-students, we think students are more concerned about the water quality and whether the law of water is suitable or not, and our residents may pay more attention to whether we have enough water sources for them. So we believed that non-students would be more concerned about the water situation in Lubbock. Therefore, we believe that non-students would be more worried about the water situation, and they would do more to save water.
Method
This was class ESL5310, Advanced Writing; we had 13 students and 4 teachers in our class. We were a group which was doing a research about the Lubbock water situation. We did a lot of work in this research, such as searching for information about the water situation on the internet; discussing with the group; doing many papers; and doing the survey to the students and residents, then analyzing it.
We did a survey about the situation of water in Lubbock. The survey included 12 questions, and each of them was simple and easy to answer. They were all multiple choice and they were all about the knowledge on water resource, and how people thought about the Lubbock water situation. It had some questions just like, ”Check the issues that you feel are most important”; “Do you know what fracking is”, and “How knowledgeable are you about where Lubbock gets its water supply”. We did our survey on some students and residents who were living in Lubbock now, by asking them to finish a survey paper. Each of us was handed in eight surveys, so finally we would have more than 130 surveys. And I think two limitations of our survey were that the number was still too small, and most of them were students.
By doing this survey, we just wanted to find out the different views for Lubbock’s water between men and women; students and non-students; Texas residents and international residents. So on the eight surveys which each of us should do, included four men and four women, at least five Americans, and we also did this survey on people who were out of our campus. And then we collected them and did an analysis.
Lubbock has a water crisis now, because of overuse of water and lack of rain. Lake Meredith, which used to be a main water resource of Lubbock, dried up in 2012. So we are faced with a water shortage, and we want to know different views of different people. Therefore, we found some students and non-students, man and woman, Texans and non-Texans, internationals and Americans, for comparison. We hoped that by comparing different people that we could draw some interesting conclusions. Like whether people recognized the water situation in Lubbock; or how people felt about Lubbock’s ability to get water in the future. And we wanted to find out the differed views between men and women, students and non-students.
Result
We wanted to know how people felt about the water situation in Lubbock, so we did this survey to help us. By analyzing the survey, we found out that a lot of people were aware of the water situation in Lubbock. 70% of all respondents said they had some knowledge about where Lubbock gets its water supply, and 51% of all respondents said that they knew where Lubbock was getting its water for public use. 53% of respondents knew about Lake Meredith’s problem, and 57% of respondents believed in water restriction for Lubbock. And 83% of all respondents said they usually try to save water. People thought that the most serious environmental problem was water pollution; 103 respondents chose this option, which was 68% of the total number. 62% of respondents chose the fresh water supply, and 59% chose drought. Nearly 60% of respondents felt worried about Lubbock’s ability to get water in the future.
We believed that men would save more water than women, but in fact they said that men did not save water as much as women. 80% of men said they usually try to save water; however, 87% of women said they usually save water. And we thought that men would have more knowledge about the Lubbock water supply, and now we can say that this hypothesis is correct. 53% of men knew about where Lubbock is getting its water for public use, while 43% of women knew. We expected that men might be more worried about the water situation in Lubbock, but in fact, only 48% of men worried about the current situation, while 72% of women felt more worried about Lubbock’s ability to get water in the future.
As for comparing students and non-students, we believed that non-students would be more concerned about the water situation in Lubbock, while students might say “I don’t care”. In the survey we found that non-students had more knowledge about Lubbock water situation than students. We had 110 students and 40 non-students in our survey, and 36% of the students knew where Lubbock got its water supply, while 68% of non-students knew about this. Moreover, 78% of non-students knew what fracking was, while 59% of the students knew the meaning of fracking. And about the Lake Meredith situation, 68% of non-students knew about it, while only 36% of the students were aware of the situation.
We suspected that non-students should be more worried about the water situation in Lubbock than the students, and they would do more to save water. But in fact, in who was more worried about the water situation, the ration was about the same. 58% of non-students worried about the current water situation in Lubbock, while 56% of students said they were worried about the water situation. As for the question “Do you usually, generally, try to save water”, 83% of students said they always do so, and 85% of non-students selected “Yes”.
Discussion
By analyzing our investigation, we came out some results. Some results confirmed our hypotheses is correct, while others let us know that we had some wrong hypotheses. When these hypotheses had been made, we believed that our assumptions were all correct, but the reality was that some of them were wrong. And I will analyze the conclusions now.
First, we made this hypothesis at the beginning; “we believe that most people would be aware of the water situation in Lubbock”. And according to the results, a lot of people said that they had some knowledge about where Lubbock gets its water supply, and about half of the respondents said they knew about Lake Meredith’s problem and about 60% of respondents believed in water restriction for Lubbock. So as we can see, many people were aware of the water situation in Lubbock. In my opinion, water shortage has been a big problem in Lubbock for a long time, and it has attracted more attention recently, because of the rising of water fees and Lake Meredith’s drying up has made people more and more concerned about those water issues.
As for many people recognizing that we faced a grim situation, 83% of all respondents said they usually try to save water; I thought this was also a good start to protect our water resources. And because of the reasons which had been listed above, there were nearly 60% of respondents who felt worried about Lubbock’s ability to get water in the future. As for “what you think is the most serious environmental problem”, most people chose water pollution and fresh water supply. In Lubbock, it is undeniable that the our water quality is not good; I think the reason is we are surrounded by the desert, so it is difficult to get fresh water for public use. I think government should think of ways to solve this problem, such as treatment of dirty water; build an effective water recycling system and so on.
To ensure that we have enough water to use, I think we should find some new water sources and build some large reservoirs, and then we should limit farmers’ and frackers’ pumping from the lake or underground. We can also talk to farmers to get them to install more technical irrigation systems which can irrigate their land by using less water. Next, I think rainwater is also an important source of Lubbock’s water supply, so we can make some artificial rainfall when we have a good chance.
As for man and woman, we expected that men might be more worried about the water situation in Lubbock, but in fact, only 48% of men worried about the current situation, while 72% of women felt more worried about Lubbock’s ability to get water in the future. We believed that men would have more knowledge of the situation of water shortage, so they might be more worried at the beginning, but now it seems wrong. My idea is that women are more likely to be worried, while men are more calm at the same time. And what’s more, women are more likely to be pessimistic, while men are more optimistic when they treat the same situation. I think this is this is the reason that women are more worried about Lubbock’s ability to get water in the future. And then we believed that men would save more water than women at first, but according to the result, men did not save water as much as women. I think the same reason which is mentioned above led to this situation. And we thought that men would have more knowledge about Lubbock water supply, and now we can say that this hypothesis is correct. Men tend to be more influenced by engineerity possibilities and they pay more attention to the accuracy of information, and then they will remember the correct information. So that men have more knowledge about Lubbock water supply.
As for comparing students and non-students, we believed that non-students would be more concerned about the water situation in Lubbock, while students might say “I don’t care”. And according to the result, we found that non-students had more knowledge about Lubbock water situation than students. Moreover, 78% of non-students knew what fracking is, while only 59% of the students knew the meaning of fracking. Because students put most of their energy into learning, they have no time to focus on the water situation in Lubbock. This is one of the reasons that non-students have more knowledge about the water situation then students, I think. Another reason is that many students are from other cities, states or even other countries, so many students have no idea about Lubbock’s water situation.
We suspected that non-students should be more worried about the water situation in Lubbock than the students, and they would do more to save water. But in fact, in who is more worried about the water situation, the ration is about the same, it is all around 70%. Most students might consider about poor water quality and the rising price of water, and then choose “worried”. Overall, most of the respondents worried about the current situation about Lubbock water.
As for the question “Do you usually, generally, try to save water”, the ratio of students and non-students who choose “Yes” is all around 85%. This result shows that people who live in Lubbock all had a good awareness of water conservation.
Our study still has many limitations, such as we just had a small number of respondents, and our questions were not comprehensive enough, and so on. If we had enough money and time, I think we would do a better job. We could interview more people to got more information, and we could go out of TTU to interview more residents and non-students. We could even go to the river where Lubbock get its water supply and do some research. Further more, if we were able to contact with the government, and asked them to provided us more detailed information on Lubbock water situation in 2013, we could have a deeper understanding about current Lubbock water situation. While our survey has limitations, but I think we are all did good job, and I feel very good about my interaction with TTU people.
If droughts continue, the situation will become worse and worse. I think if people know about this situation, most people will do water-saving activities. So I believe we will find that most Lubbock residents are aware of the problem and they are trying to conserve water now. And we may find that many of the Lubbock residents have their own ideas on the water situation, and use their own methods to protect the water resources. What I want to say is that protecting our water resources is not only in order to protect water resources, but also so that our children have water to drink in the future, and have a happier and more comfortable life in Lubbock.
Reference
Fleming, P. (2012, October 19). Portrait of a Drought: Finding Water Where It Ain’t. Climate Progress. Retrieved on September 29, 2013 from http://thinkpro
gress.org/climate/2012/10/19/1052091/portrait-of-a-drought-finding-water -where-it-aint/
Goldenberg, S. (2013, August 11). A Texan tragedy: ample oil, no water. The Guardian. Retrieved on September 29, 2013 from http://www.theguardian.
com/environment/2013/aug/11/texas-tragedy-ample-oil-no-water
National Environmental Education And Training Foundation, (1994, December 1), Environmental Attitudes And Behaviors of American Youth (Chapter Two: Knowledge). Retrieved on October 28, 2013 from http://eelink.net/ROPER/
TOC.html
Reed, A. (2012, February 9). Lubbock's water crisis, how did we get here? KCBD.
Retrieved on September 30, 2013 from http://www.kcbd.com/story
/16903788/lubbocks-water-crisis-how-did-we-get-here
Sauter, M. B. and Hess, A.E.M. (2013, August 1), Nine cities running out of water.
Retrieved on September 30, 2013 from http://finance.yahoo.com/news/
nine-cities-running-water-192757786.html
West, Larry. (n,d.). Former About.com Guide What are the Effects of Drought?
Retrieved on September 30, 2013 from http://environment.about.com/od/
environmental-events/a/droughteffects.html
APPENDIX I
survey
I am from Texas_____ USA not Texas______ International, not USA_____
I am Student______ Non-student______
I am Male______ Female______
1. Check the issues that you feel are the most important. Check as many as you like.
Rising sea levels_____
Global warming____
Increasing storms, tornadoes, & hurricanes_____
Drought Increasing flooding____
Fresh water supply____
Fracking & drilling and their effects____
Air pollution____
Water pollution____
2. Do you know what fracking is? YES_____ NO______
3. Do you believe fracking endangers the public water supply?
YES_____ NO_____ I don’t know_____
4. How knowledgeable are you about where Lubbock gets its water supply?
Very knowledgeable______ Somewhat______ Not very_____
5. Do you know where Lubbock is getting its water for public use, now?
YES_____ NO______
6. Do you know how Lake Meredith us related to the question of Lubbock's water supply? YES_____ NO_____
7. Do you belive in water restrictions for the city of Lubbock?
YES_____ NO______ I don't know_____
8. Do you think Lubbock enforces its water restrictions effectively?
YES_____ NO______ I don't know_____
9. Do you believe in water restrictions for farmers in the area?
YES_____ NO______ I don't know_____
10. Do you usually, generally, try to save water (for example, turn it off while brushing teeth?) YES_____ NO_____
11. Which of the people on the list take MORE water than they should, based on the availability of the resource? Check as many as you like.
Farmers_____ Oil drillers_____ People who water their lawns_____
12. Which best describes your feelings about Lubbock's ability to get water in the future? Confident____ Worried_____
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