Communication In Water Contamination Events
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
||||||||||||
 |
 |
 |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
||||||||
 |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
 |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||
 |
 |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||
Executive Summary
We all know how important water is. We use it everyday in many different ways in our daily lives. We expect it to be clean and in abundance.
However, the possibility of water contamination is always present. In Pascoag, Rhode Island, in the fall of 2001, gasoline leaking from an underground storage tank at a Mobil station contaminated drinking water supplies with the chemical MTBE, or methyl tertiary-butyl ether, a gasoline additive. What followed was more than four months during which restrictions were placed on water usage, affecting 5,000 Pascoag residents.
Pascoag residents were told:
- Do not drink your tap water.
- Do not cook with your tap water.
- Sponge bathe young children.
- Use ventilation when showering or using large amounts of water.
Additionally, during this time, frustrated, angry, and concerned residents worried about the health effects this chemical would have for them and their children.
This work takes that water contamination event as its introduction.
This thesis:
- focuses on public perceptions of water contamination events
- examines what people are most concerned about in the event of actual and hypothetical water contaminations
- explores how agencies communicate with contaminated communities based on these concerns
- discusses communications strategies and recommendations in terms communicating during water contamination events and preparing a framework for communication before a contamination occurs
This work is based on three different components:
- a study of 100 Pascoag residents conducted in the spring of 2002
- examination of published literature about risk, communication and contaminated communities
- focus groups about a hypothetical contamation conducted in the Pawtuxet Village in 2003
In analyzing these three components, I found that community concerns fell into three main themes: trust, informed decision-making, and dealing with the new context of bioterrorism. My recommendations deal with the need to develop an overall communications strategy and incorporate participatory communications techniques with communities before a water contamination event begins.
Please follow the links above to explore this web-based thesis.