Stakeholder Perception of Water Quality
Grant
Overview
abstract
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Threats to water quality in North Carolina derive from several sources, including agriculture, municipal waste-handling practices, mining, industrial development, and other patterns of land and water use. During coastal hazard events and pollution episodes, public responses to water quality problems often involve calls for stricter regulations on industry and agriculture. In recent years, attention has focused on the roles of hog confinement operations, fertilizers, and phosphate mining in nutrient loading, harmful algal blooms (HABs), and general water quality problems. Yet public response to water quality problems often fails to differentiate between different farming and industrial practices, to recognize the ways that farmers view the environment and act to reduce nutrient loading, or to understand the ways in which farming in Eastern North Carolina overlaps with fishing and contributes to historically important coastal lifestyles. Further, public response often jeopardizes tourism and related industries by creating widespread perceptions of extremely poor and unhealthy water quality. This project will compare the differing perceptions of water quality problems among different stakeholders, including farmers, municipal and industry representatives, environmentalists, residents, tourists, and coastal managers. In the process, we anticipate encountering "best practices," specifically designed reduce their contributions to deteriorating water quality, among farmers and other coastal business owners.
date/time interval
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February 2002 - December 2004
awarded by