Are Well Owners Unique Environmentalists? An Exploration of Rural Water Supply Infrastructure, Conservation Routines, and Moderation

Brock Ternes
Additional contact information
Brock Ternes: Department of Sociology/Anthropology, State University of New York College at Cortland, Cortland, NY 13045, USA

Sustainability, 2019, vol. 11, issue 18, 1-14

Abstract: Enormous demands for irrigation water have depleted groundwater reserves in Kansas, where portions of the High Plains aquifer are in jeopardy. This study examines how private water wells influence conservation routines by comparing the watering practices of well owners to those of non-well owners across the state. My guiding research question is: Does water supply infrastructure moderate the relationship between demographic predictors and pro-environmental behaviors (PEBs)? To answer this, I surveyed well owners and non-well owners throughout Kansas (n = 864). The results indicate that controlling for water supplies uncovers differences across many associations between water conservation efforts and other PEBs with commonly studied demographics (sex, income, political affiliation, education, age, and geography). Researching well owners’ acts of environmental stewardship will be key to aquifer preservation.

Keywords: well owners; pro-environmental behaviors; groundwater; infrastructure; sociology of water usage (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/18/4822/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/18/4822/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:18:p:4822-:d:263909

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().