Excerpt
OVER the past 20 years, water quality issues have moved quietly to the forefront of public concern, along with such other concerns as AIDS, pesticides in food, and asbestos. A recent study in New York showed that, of 10 health-risk issues studied, water quality issues were of greater concern to the public than other health-risk issues, such as AIDS or radon1. This high public awareness and concern is both a blessing and a curse for policymakers at local, state, and federal levels of government. While there is overall public support for policies designed to protect valuable groundwater, the public has challenged conclusions and recommendations from scientists and risk-assessment experts on many occasions.
Technology for detecting and understanding water quality problems and the impacts of activities on long-range groundwater quality has advanced considerably. But our understanding and ability to communicate this complex information to the public has advanced more slowly. More than ever, citizens are demanding that they be a part of the policymaking process. Yet policymaking groups have developed few mechanisms for involving the public and even fewer for creating a public adequately informed to participate effectively in the process.
Public involvement
The scientific community appears …
Footnotes
Clifford W. Scherer is an associate professor with the Department of Communication, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853.
- Copyright 1990 by the Soil and Water Conservation Society
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