Investigating social perceptions associated with water quality in

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports 2017 Investigating Social Perceptions Associated with Water Quality in Morgantown, West Virginia Jonas G. Leveque Follow this and additional works at: https://researchrepository.edu/etd Recommended Citation Leveque, Jonas G., "Investigating Social Perceptions Associated with Water Quality in Morgantown, West Virginia" (2017). Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports.edu/etd/7327 This Dissertation is protected by copyright and/or related rights. It has been brought to you by the The Research Repository @ WVU with permission from the rights-holder(s).

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Investigating Social Perceptions Associated with Water Quality in Morgantown, West Virginia. Levêque Dissertation submitted to the Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Design at West Virginia University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Forest Resource Science Committee: Robert C., Chair Dave Smaldone, Ph. Jinyang Deng, Ph. Jasmine Moreira, Ph.

Division of Forestry and Natural Resources Recreation, Parks and Tourism Resources Program Morgantown, West Virginia 2017 Keywords: Water Quality, Perceptions, Risks, SEM, Bottled Water, Filter, Proximity Copyright 2017 Jonas Levêque     ProQuest Number: 10606874     All rights reserved  INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted.  In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion.      ProQuest 10606874  Published by ProQuest LLC (2017 ).

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Box 1346 Ann Arbor, MI 48106 - 1346 Abstract This dissertation investigates public perceptions of water quality in Morgantown, West Virginia. In recent years, water has become an increasingly critical issue in terms of quantity worldwide, and also in terms of quality. In developed countries such as the United States, water quality is often taken for granted by the general public. Nonetheless, recent water crises in Flint, Michigan and Charleston, West Virginia, are examples showing there are environmental risks associated with human activities.

This dissertation explores the context of West Virginia, with coal mining that is decreasing and non-conventional oil and gas drilling that is increasing in the Appalachia region. The main focus of this dissertation is the understanding of tap water quality perceptions and drinking behaviors. The dissertation is divided in five chapters: introduction of the dissertation, context of West Virginia and risk perceptions, modeling drinking behaviors, model building with Structural Equation Modeling (SEM), and proximity analysis. Utilizing an online survey and a mailing survey, we contacted 5492 residents in Morgantown and surrounding areas in Monongalia County to ask them to take part in a research survey about water quality.

With a total effective response rate of 11.3%, 603 persons completed the survey (88% residing within Morgantown). The main results of the dissertation are: (1) there exist potential risks of chemical spills in West Virginia, due to the impacts of human activities; (2) most residents are not aware of the quality of their water and do not have strong feelings about their water; (3) bottled water consumption is linked to lower education, lower environmental concern but to higher risks perceptions from drinking from the tap, as well as lower perceptions of organoleptic perceptions from the water (taste, odor, color); (4) using a water filter is mainly linked to higher incomes, low organoleptic perceptions and younger populations; (5) SEM was a useful technique to depict relationships between the different water quality perceptions; (6) SEM found evidence that the construct “Perceived Water Quality” has multicollinearity issues; (7) Proximity to horizontal wells affect water quality perceptions, but the effect size is rather small. The main implications of these results and this dissertation are the lack of communications from industries and governments to the public. There is a gap between what consumers should know and understand about their water quality.

Better information from scientists and local decision-makers should be available to the general public in order to make the right choices for water management and environmental protection. Last but not least, this dissertation argues that education is an important issue for West Virginia water quality and the Appalachia Region in general. Acknowledgments Completion of this dissertation was possible to many persons and resources that are mentioned here. First, I would like to give my sincere gratitude to Dr.

Burns, committee Chair, for helping me reaching new levels in research through excellent leadership and mentoring. Robert was instrumental in providing me with all tools necessary to achieve success. Thank you for trusting in me and pushing me to do more and better. I would also like to recognize my other committee members Dr.

Selin and Dr. Moreira for their support and advice throughout my dissertation work and also during classes, conferences and other activities. All of them made my stay possible at West Virginia University. I would particularly thank “Dr.

Dave” for relaxation tips and chocolate Thursdays. I would like to express my appreciativeness to the U. National Science Foundation- Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (through WV-HEPC-Division of Science and Research) under the Award Number 145852 and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) for the funding of this study. I would also like to thank the numerous persons that I met through the Appalachian Freshwater Initiative, for their input and motivation to learn more and share more information and knowledge.

Lastly, I cannot thank enough my family in France for supporting me being overseas throughout this journey and to believe in me through the ups and downs. Merci beaucoup d’avoir cru en moi. I would also like to thank my fiancée, Elisabeth, for being at my side along this path and to have helped me with my English. Thank you for the Kee family for being here for Elisabeth and I.

I would also like to thank my best friend Merlijn Hoftijzer, as well as other friends and the Percival Hall friends and faculty who supported me. iv Table of Contents Acknowledgments. iv List of Tables. ix List of Figures.

xi Chapter I: Introduction. 12 Chapter II: Article 1. 16 Introduction: the importance of water. 16 Industrial Development in West Virginia.

18 Decline of Coal Mining. 19 Environmental Laws and Impact towards Mining. 21 Coal and Gas Mining and Potential Water Pollution Risks. 24 Potential Risks and Recent Crises.

34 Conclusions and Implications. 37 Chapter III: Article 2. 54 Data Processing and Analysis. 59 Descriptive summary of the sample.

59 Logistic regression model 1: Predicting bottled water use. 61 Logistic regression model 2: Predicting filter use. 65 Conclusion and implications. 72 Chapter IV: Article 3.

Data processing and analysis. Total and indirect effects. 104 Appendix A: Observed and latent variables. 109 Appendix B: Correlations, means and standard deviations of observed variables (n = 603).

112 Appendix C: Map of the study location. 136 Limitations and future studies. 137 Chapter 6: Future research and next steps. 142 viii List of Tables Chapter II: Article 1 Table 1: Demographic Characteristics of Respondents (N= 603)…………………………….31 Table 2: Items and Responses for Constructs…………………………………………………….32 Table 3: Perceived Health Risks Regression Table………………………………………….34 Chapter III: Article 2 Table 1: Demographics from the sample under study……………………………………….59 Table 2: Summary of Logistic Regression Analysis Predicting Drinking Bottled Water (N = 555)………………………………………………………………………………………………62 Table 3: Summary of Logistic Regression Analysis Predicting Using a Filter (N = 546)….……64 Chapter IV: Article 3 Table 1: Corrected measurement errors and error variances for single-item indicators (model with n = 603)……………………………………………………………………………….89 Table 2: Construct Reliability (CR), Average Variance Extracted (AVE) and squared correlations for latent constructs………………………………………………………………………………90 Table 3: Construct Reliability (CR), Average Variance Extracted (AVE) and squared correlations for latent constructs, for final model…………………………………………………………….91 Table 4: Model with and without restrictions on two-factor loadings………………………….92 Table 5: CFA parameter estimates, and latent standardized correlations……………………….95 Table 6: Fit indices for the final model………………………………………………………….96 Table 7: Standardized total effects and (total) indirect effects of KSI and ETA on ETA…….99 Appendix A: Observed and latent variables………………………………………………….…110 Appendix B: Correlations, means and standard deviations of observed variables (n = 603)……111 ix Chapter V: Article 4 Table 1: Demographic Characteristics of Participants (N=535)……………………………….119 Table 2: Descriptive statistics of the nearest distances per category of feature……………….123 Table 3: Water Quality Perceptions based on proximity to Active Horizontal Wells………….124 Table 4: Differences for organoleptic perceptions at 3000 meters and 2 miles……………….126 Table 5: Differences in organoleptic perceptions for 750m, the median and 1000m………….127 Table 6: Regression analysis summary for proximity variables predicting organoleptic perceptions, controlling for residents' demographics.128 Table 7: Regression analysis summary for proximity variables predicting perceived surface water quality, controlling for residents' demographics……………………………………………….129 Table 8: Regression analysis summary for proximity variables predicting perceived health risks, controlling for residents' demographics…………………………………………………………130 Table 9: Regression analysis summary for proximity variables predicting environmental concern, controlling for residents' demographics…………………………………………………………131 x List of Figures Chapter I: Introduction Figure 1: Detailed Relationships between water quality perceptions.

In Doria et al.5 Chapter IV: Article 3 Figure 1: Full Structural Model. Latent constructs are shown in ellipses. Observed variables are shown in rectangles. d represents the disturbances from the endogenous latent constructs.83 Figure 2: Path model and loadings.

Grey small arrows represent disturbances (1 – d = R2).97 Appendix C: Map of the study location……………………………………………………….112 Chapter V: Article 4 Figure 1: Map of the study location………………………………………………………….118 Figure 2: Locations of the different features and residents’ locations……………………….122 xi Chapter I: Introduction The dissertation is divided in five chapters. The first part of this chapter highlights the significance of water quality in the U. through the problem statement and the theoretical framework. The second part of the chapter describes the methodology as well as a succinct summary of each chapter.

Problem Statement Throughout the world, water crises are emerging as human demands for water increase (World Bank, 2016). According to the International Energy Association (2012) and the U. Geological Survey (2016), worldwide freshwater resources represent less than 3% of the world water resources, with up to 70% being not readily accessible. From the resources that are available, 70% are used for agriculture.

With climate change and human population increases, these resources are more at risk and careful management should be practiced (World Health Organization, 2015). In West Virginia, coal mining has been decreasing over the past few decades, while unconventional oil and gas drilling has been gradually increasing. Evidence from the literature shows that freshwater resources are at risk from all of these activities. While aging coal mines and infrastructures can result in Acid Mine Drainage, increasing the risk of pollution, unconventional oil and gas drilling uses massive amounts of water resources, increasing the risk of pollution, aboveground and underground (the literature being split on the realistic possibility of underground contamination) (Engelder et al.

2014; Harkness et al., 2017; Osborn et al. Although water is needed for many uses, including personal consumption and recreational purposes, there have only been a few studies that aimed at understanding the public perceptions 1 of water quality in the Appalachia region. A chemical spill on the Elk River, in January 2014, near West Virginia’s state capitol (Charleston) created worldwide negative publicity about West Virginia, highlighting the fact that even Western countries are still facing large-scale water pollution concerns (Whelton et al.