Don't Drink the Water: Communication in Water Contamination Events

Jessica Galante
Bachelors of Arts in Environmental Studies
May 2003

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. This study is available at http://envstudies.brown.edu/pascoag
  
• examination of published literature about risk, communication and contaminated communities
  
• focus groups about a hypothetical contamination conducted in the Pawtuxet Village in 2003. These groups were shown and asked to comment on communications and materials from different agencies and organizations available to Pascoag residents about the water contamination. The focus group participants were unaware that they were discussing actual communications from Pascoag.

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.

My main strategic recommendation is to incorporate these two needs, the immediate need to respond and the longer term need to educate, into an overall communications plan. This plan needs to consist of a framework, which can

• expand to deal with different contamination events
  
• reflect community needs and concerns
  
• utilize community knowledge and awareness
  
• respond to different scientific and technical issues
  
• use a variety of different media to communicate and relay messages

The full thesis may be viewed at:
http://envstudies.brown.edu/thesis/2003/jessica_galante