Mistrust at the tap? Factors contributing to public drinking water (mis)perception across US households

Abstract

How individuals perceive the safety of their public drinking water influences whether they reach for the tap to quench their thirst, or an alternative such as bottled water or a sugary drink. In turn, mistrust of drinking water quality and subsequent reliance on alternative beverage sources can adversely impact health, welfare and the environment. Using data from the 2013 American Housing Survey, we provide the first national, rigorous assessment of individuals’ perception of their public drinking water supply. We found strong evidence that perception of water quality is most influenced by individual and household indicators of socioeconomic status – education level, household income, racial or ethnic minority status, and most importantly foreign-born nativity, especially from Latin America. By contrast, our findings provide little indication that perception is tied to known built environment or neighborhood risk factors affecting water safety and quality. We outline the implications of our findings for proponents of enhanced tap water consumption, including public drinking water systems, county public health agencies, and particularly for environmental justice non-profits.

U.S. Households' Perception of Drinking Water as Unsafe and its Consequences: Examining Alternative Choices to the Tap

“…Despite the increased vulnerability of private wells to contamination, well owners' perception of their tap water quality has been shown to be influenced by a variety of factors, including perception of publicly provided services, reassurance, and knowledge of the environment. In fact, the work of Pierce and Gonzalez () shows that, controlling for other correlates of trust, private well owners are actually more likely to trust their tap drinking water than those relying on larger, publicly regulated supplies. While the most recent AHS questionnaire did not survey for the size of the water system serving households, it asked respondents to identify whether their drinking water was sourced from a private well or publicly regulated system, labeled as well source in our analysis.…”

“…While previous scholarship has extensively examined drinking water perception in low and middle income countries, where the risks associated with drinking water supplies are high (e.g., see Spencer, ), only a handful have explored the phenomenon in the U.S. context (see Gorelick et al, ; Hobson et al, ; Hu et al, ; Huerta‐Sáenz et al, ; Pierce & Gonzalez, ). Of these studies, an even smaller number have analyzed the choice of alternative drinking water sources by U.S. households who perceive their tap water to be unsafe (Abrahams et al, ; Johnstone & Serret, ; Levêque & Burns, ).…”

“…Tap water perception is influenced by various experiential factors that influence risk perceptions, including individuals' knowledge of testing results of their tap water quality, local experiences with water systems, sociocultural beliefs about tap water, the sensory qualities of water, and other factors (de França Doria, ; de França Doria et al, ; Jones et al, ). Race, ethnicity, and nativity have also been shown to influence perception of drinking water safety, as African American, Hispanic, and foreign born households disproportionately avoid tap water and prefer bottled water over alternatives (Gorelick et al, ; Hobson et al, ; Pierce & Gonzalez, ; Rosinger et al, ; Scherzer et al, ). Other important determinants of perception of drinking water safety identified by these studies include income, age, and education (Abrahams et al, ; de França Doria, , ; de França Doria et al, ; Jones et al, ).…”

“…Further, studies have proven that the perception of tap water as unsafe has marked health consequences (Ogden et al, 2012), as households more commonly substitute sugary beverages for all types of water when they perceive the tap to be unsafe (Onufrak et al, 2014). In terms of equity, these negative consequences of alternative choices to the tap are felt most severely by disadvantaged households, as studies have shown that low-income, minority households disproportionately perceive their tap water to be unsafe (Gorelick et al, 2011;Hobson et al, 2007;Pierce & Gonzalez, 2017a;Regnier et al, 2015;Scherzer et al, 2010). Finally, the perception of tap water as unsafe leads to harms to the environment via increased consumption of bottled drinks (Merkel et al, 2012).…”

Exploring citizens' support for policy tools at the food, energy, water nexus

“…As a consequence, the level of public favorability toward various policy tools that could be adopted to address the FEW nexus is unclear. Studies have shown that most Americans favor reforming food policy [11], that they are willing to consider alternative energy policy options [12,13], and that they are concerned about policies affecting water quality [14]. However, to address food, energy, and water resources more effectively, it is imperative that research on public preferences and the explanations for those preferences be conducted from a nexus perspective.…”