Predicting community behaviour in relation to wastewater reuse: What drives decisions to accept or reject?

This reports the results of a three-year investigation which aimed to develop a measurement of prediction of community intended behaviour in relation to the reuse of different wastewaters for different uses. It has been apparent that communities support the concept of water reuse as a means of responsible water resources management. However, many technically sound schemes internationally have failed because communities have rejected them. Little has been known of how people make their decisions to accept or reject schemes. Public acceptance, therefore, has been viewed as an “obstacle” to implementing reuse schemes and so the emphasis has been principally on persuasion. However, it is now generally accepted that social marketing and persuasion are ineffective. Until now, it has been difficult to know what to replace them with as there have been no systematic programs of social investigation to identify the different factors that might influence public perceptions or mediate their decision making. International literature reviews found little that specifically related to the recycling of water, however, a number of parallel literatures (eg. food technology) provided some insights. Therefore, a research program was designed to systematically investigate, identify, measure and test the major factors that govern people’s decisions about whether to use recycled water for different uses or whether to reject the schemes

Levelling the playing field: A case study of how non-market values can compete in policy debates over wastewater allocation in a semi-arid region

In this paper we describe how benefits are transferred from previous non-market valuation research to inform the public policy debate on the allocation of treated wastewater to Riparian Projects in the semi-arid city of Tucson, Arizona, United States. Specifically, we transfer property premiums associated with proximity to riparian habitat to two proposed, and one accidental, urban Riparian Project. The study demonstrates that nearby property owners would likely benefit from wastewater reuse in riparian corridor restoration projects. Furthermore, the variable costs of supplying supplementary treated wastewater to one of the Riparian Projects are covered by incremental property tax revenues. We conclude that there is a window of opportunity to utilize a portion of Tucson's treated wastewater, over half of which is currently discharged at the northern end of the city, for additional in-town riparian restoration projects. Such riparian restoration projects also provide a mechanism for Endangered Species Act compliance