Television and newspapers are the most frequently cited sources of water information by citizens of Alaska, Idaho, Oregon and Washington. Newspapers were cited by 68 percent of survey respondents as a source of water information (Table 1). Another 59 percent of survey respondents reported that they had received water information from television. Environmental agencies and environmental organizations have provided water information to 51 and 46 percent of the public in the Pacific Northwest, respectively. Over a quarter of survey respondents reported that they have received water information from the Extension Service associated with the region's land grant universities. Universities and schools were cited by 25 and 20 percent of the public as water information sources, respectively. From an educational standpoint, newspapers are probably a better source of water information compared to television. This is due to the fact that reading a newspaper is an active learning process compared to the relatively passive process of watching television. Table 1. Sources of water quality information for citizens of Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington. Information source % receiving information Newspapers 68 Television 59 Environmental agencies 51 Environmental groups 46 Extension 28 Universities 25 Schools 20 The PNW Water Survey 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 awareness portion of the survey, residents were asked the sources(s) of their water information. The sampling error of this survey question was +/- 3 percent.

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 Charlotte Clausing: 360-392-4319 cclausing@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 age of Pacific Northwest residents impacted the type of water information sources they were most often exposed to. For instance people over 50 years old were much more likely to obtain water information from Extension than people younger than 50 (Table 2). Older citizens were also more likely to obtain water information from newspapers and/or environmental agencies than younger people. Table 2. Impact of citizen age on source of water quality information source for citizens of the Pacific Northwest. Source < 30 (%) Age in 30-49 (%) years 50-69 (%) > 69 (%) Television 62 52 62 70 Newspapers 61 62 73 79 Extension 16 22 35 35 Environmental agencies 43 48 52 57 The state of residence also had an impact on the water information source (Table 3). Residents of Alaska were more likely to obtain water information from environmental agencies than residents of Idaho, Oregon or Washington. People in Oregon tended to receive more water-related information from environmental groups than residents of the other three states. Extension reached a greater percentage of Alaska residents with water information than Idaho, Oregon, or Washington. Table 3. The impact of state of residence on sources of water quality information. Source AK (%) State of ID (%) residence OR (%) WA (%) Environmental agencies 64 42 49 51 Environmental groups 44 33 52 47 Extension 38 28 30 24 Although Extension does not have the consumer reach that newspapers and television have, it is an important source of water information in smaller communities (Table 4). In fact 42 percent of residents in communities that have less than 7,000 residents have used Extension as a source of water information. Table 4. The impact of community size on source of water quality information for citizens of the Pacific Northwest. Source > 100,000 (%) Community 25-100,000 (%) size 7-25,000 (%) < 7,000 (%) Newspapers 69 70 74 57 Extension 25 23 29 42 The data presented in this update shows that people in the Pacific Northwest obtain information about water quality and water resources from a variety of sources. Future educational programs about water should consider many of the sources shown above as potential outlets to make their programs more effective.
	This material is based upon work supported by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, U. S. Department of Agriculture, under Agreement No 2008-51130-4734.

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HOME | About | Calendar | Contacts | Links | PNW Water Updates | Sitemap NIFA National Water Quality Program This material is based upon work supported by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture, under Agreement No. 2008-51130-04734. all external sites will open in a new browser window page last modified on August 27, 2006