Summary of Attitude Surveys for Lower Chartiers Creek

Watershed Rivers Conservation Plan

 

In order to assess community attitudes toward rivers conservation issues, a mail-in survey was administered at the public meetings for the Rivers Conservation Plan, held in early 2000; and questionnaires were mailed to persons on the mailing lists of watershed conservation groups. Roughly 1000 surveys were distributed, and 93 were returned.

This is a brief summary of the responses to the questions in the survey.  A copy of the survey can be viewed at the link below.

• Respondents were asked which water challenges were very prevalent in their local area: the results show the main concern to be the physical, non-chemical features of the streams rather than water quality itself.
• Respondents were asked to consider activities that were likely to be causing stream and water quality problems in their area: The prevalent view was that development, municipal and mining activities are at fault, while agriculture and septic systems are of lesser importance.
• Respondents were asked their views on funding sources for stream remediation: the results show people to be supportive of  "polluters pay" types of fees and not as supportive of resident taxes or fees.
• Respondents were asked about their vision of the area: people were more focussed on quality of life factors such as stream aesthetics and recreational opportunities rather than economic factors such as jobs, taxes and economic activity.
• Respondents were asked what they thought would have the greatest positive impact on water quality in their area. There was a strong consensus for municipalities enacting zoning ordinances to protect environmental quality and for older areas to be developed before pristine areas. Also, hiking and biking trails were viewed very positively. Stream quality improvements were not viewed as a major contributor to improving economic conditions.  Respondents were more interested in the cleaning up highly polluted streams rather than a large number of less polluted streams.

TO VIEW THE SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE PLEASE CLICK ON THE FOLLOWING LINK:
 
questionnaire.htm