A 50-question survey was developed by the Pacific Northwest water quality team to document public awareness, aptitudes, attitudes and actions toward water quality in Alaska, Idaho, Oregon and Washington. Demographic data about the survey respondents were also collected. This statistically designed survey was completed by over 50 percent of the 1,800 residents who were solicited for this study in 2002. As part of the water attitude portion of the survey, residents were asked about 10 specific regional water issues. Respondents were asked to label each water issue as not important, somewhat important, very important, extremely important, or having no opinion. The sampling error of the survey was +/- 2.5 percent. When the very important and extremely important responses were added together a majority of respondents considered all ten issues as having high priority and will be described as such throughout this pamphlet. Over 90 percent of respondents considered clean drinking water, clean rivers and clean groundwater as high priority (Table 1). Eighty-four percent of the survey respondents indicated that having enough water for agriculture was high priority despite the fact that over 80 percent of Pacific Northwest residents live in urban areas. Over two-thirds of Pacific Northwest residents indicated that water for power generation, water for economic development, loss of wetlands, prevention of salmon extinction, and watershed restoration were high priority (Table 1). Water for recreation (58 percent) received the smallest majority from the respondents. Table 1. The percent of survey respondents living in Alaska, Idaho, Oregon and Washington ranking the following water issues as very or extremely important. Issue Very or extremely important % Clean drinking water 99 Clean rivers 94 Clean groundwater 93 Water for agriculture 84 Water for power generation 72 Water for economic development 70 Loss of wetlands (wildlife habitat) 69 Prevention of salmon extinction 69 Watershed restoration 68 Water for recreation (fishing, boating, rafting) 58

Pacific Northwest Regional Water Quality Coordination Project Partners Land Grant Universities Alaska Cooperative Extension Service Contact Fred Sorensen: 907-786-6311 http://www.alaska.edu/uaf/ces/ University Publications: http://www.alaska.edu/uaf/ces/publications/ Idaho University of Idaho Cooperative Extension System Contact Bob Mahler: 208-885-7025 http://www.uidaho.edu/wq/wqhome.html University Publications: http://info.ag.uidaho.edu/Catalog/catalog.html Oregon Oregon State University Extension Service Contact Mike Gamroth: 541-737-3316 http://extension.oregonstate.edu/ University Publications: http://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalog/ Washington Washington State University WSU Extension Contact Bob Simmons: 360-427-9670 ext. 690 http://wawater.wsu.edu/ University Publications: http://pubs.wsu.edu/ Northwest Indian College Contact Michael Cochrane: 360-392-4299 mcochrane@nwic.edu or http://www.nwic.edu/ Water Resource Research Institutes Water and Environmental Research Center (Alaska) http://www.uaf.edu/water/ Idaho Water Resources Research Institute http://www.boise.uidaho.edu/ Institute for Water and Watersheds (Oregon) http://water.oregonstate.edu/ State of Washington Water Research Center http://www.swwrc.wsu.edu/ Environmental Protection Agency EPA, Region 10 The Pacific Northwest http://www.epa.gov/r10earth/ Office of Research and Development, Corvallis Laboratory http://www.epa.gov/wed/ For more information contact Jan Seago at 206-553-0038 or seago.jan@epa.gov
	The demographic factors of state of residence, occupation, and education level did not impact how people viewed water issues; however, gender, age, and length of residence in the Pacific Northwest did influence answers to several water issues. Based on this survey a higher percentage of females than males view clean groundwater, prevention of salmon extinction, loss of wetlands, water for power generation, and water for agriculture as high priority (Table 2). Table 2. The influence of gender on ranking water issues as high priority in the Pacific Northwest. Issue Female % Male % Clean groundwater 96 92 Prevention of salmon extinction 72 66 Loss of wetlands 78 64 Water for power generation 76 69 Water for agriculture 87 81 A higher percentage of younger respondents than older respondents viewed the loss of wetlands as high priority (Table 3). Conversely, senior citizens were more likely than younger people to view having enough water for power generation as high priority. Table 3. The influence of respondent's age on ranking water issues as high priority in the Pacific Northwest. Issue < 50 (%) Age in years 50-69 (%) > 69 (%) Loss of wetlands 74 67 55 Water for power generation 67 75 82 Over 80 percent of respondents who have lived in the Pacific Northwest less than five years considered salmon extinction and loss of wetlands as high priority water issues. However, only about 60 percent of the long-term residents considered these issues high priority. Table 4. The influence of length of residence in the region on ranking water issues as high priority in the Pacific Northwest. Issue All Time in PNW (years) >10 >5-9 <5 Prevention of salmon extinction 60 72 75 89 Loss of wetlands 64 72 74 83 The survey results shown above indicate that a substandial majority of people in Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington care about water issues in the Pacific Northwest. It appears that citizens of the region regularly scrutinize these 10 water issues and have a need for relevant and current information. Based on information learned from this survey the land grant universities in the Pacific Northwest plan to develop educational programs to meet these needs.
	CSREES is the Cooperative States Research, Education and Extension Service, a sub-agency of the United States Department of Agriculture, and is the federal partner in this water quality program.

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