Abstract
Increases in water treatment technology have made water recycling a viable engineering solution to water supply limitations. In spite of this, such water recycling schemes have often been halted by lack of public acceptance. Previous studies have captured the public's attitudes regarding planned reuse schemes, but here we focus on unplanned reuse (i.e. de facto reuse), present in many cities across the U.S. We performed a survey in three metropolitan areas, Atlanta, GA (N = 421), Philadelphia, PA (N = 490), and Phoenix, AZ (N = 418), to assess basic perceptions of treated wastewater occurrence and its acceptance in the public water supply. These perceptions were then coupled by estimates of the actual extent of occurrence in the corresponding cities. The key results are that (1) de facto reuse occurs at rates across the three cities higher than what is perceived; (2) roughly 25% of respondents perceive de facto reuse to occur in their home tap water; and (3) respondents who perceived de facto reuse to occur at their tap were ten times more likely to have a high level of acceptance for de facto reuse in their home tap.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Journal | Sustainable Cities and Society |
| DOIs | |
| State | Accepted/In press - Nov 4 2015 |
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Keywords
- De facto reuse
- Public acceptance
- Wastewater reuse
- Yuck factor
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Geography, Planning and Development
- Transportation
- Civil and Structural Engineering
- Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment
Cite this
Comparing actual de facto wastewater reuse and its public acceptability : A three city case study. / Rice, Jacelyn; Wutich, Amber; White, Dave; Westerhoff, Paul.
In: Sustainable Cities and Society, 04.11.2015.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Comparing actual de facto wastewater reuse and its public acceptability
T2 - A three city case study
AU - Rice, Jacelyn
AU - Wutich, Amber
AU - White, Dave
AU - Westerhoff, Paul
PY - 2015/11/4
Y1 - 2015/11/4
N2 - Increases in water treatment technology have made water recycling a viable engineering solution to water supply limitations. In spite of this, such water recycling schemes have often been halted by lack of public acceptance. Previous studies have captured the public's attitudes regarding planned reuse schemes, but here we focus on unplanned reuse (i.e. de facto reuse), present in many cities across the U.S. We performed a survey in three metropolitan areas, Atlanta, GA (N = 421), Philadelphia, PA (N = 490), and Phoenix, AZ (N = 418), to assess basic perceptions of treated wastewater occurrence and its acceptance in the public water supply. These perceptions were then coupled by estimates of the actual extent of occurrence in the corresponding cities. The key results are that (1) de facto reuse occurs at rates across the three cities higher than what is perceived; (2) roughly 25% of respondents perceive de facto reuse to occur in their home tap water; and (3) respondents who perceived de facto reuse to occur at their tap were ten times more likely to have a high level of acceptance for de facto reuse in their home tap.
AB - Increases in water treatment technology have made water recycling a viable engineering solution to water supply limitations. In spite of this, such water recycling schemes have often been halted by lack of public acceptance. Previous studies have captured the public's attitudes regarding planned reuse schemes, but here we focus on unplanned reuse (i.e. de facto reuse), present in many cities across the U.S. We performed a survey in three metropolitan areas, Atlanta, GA (N = 421), Philadelphia, PA (N = 490), and Phoenix, AZ (N = 418), to assess basic perceptions of treated wastewater occurrence and its acceptance in the public water supply. These perceptions were then coupled by estimates of the actual extent of occurrence in the corresponding cities. The key results are that (1) de facto reuse occurs at rates across the three cities higher than what is perceived; (2) roughly 25% of respondents perceive de facto reuse to occur in their home tap water; and (3) respondents who perceived de facto reuse to occur at their tap were ten times more likely to have a high level of acceptance for de facto reuse in their home tap.
KW - De facto reuse
KW - Public acceptance
KW - Wastewater reuse
KW - Yuck factor
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UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84977124949&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.scs.2016.06.007
DO - 10.1016/j.scs.2016.06.007
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84977124949
JO - Sustainable Cities and Society
JF - Sustainable Cities and Society
SN - 2210-6707
ER -