The Texas Water Journal has published a new article titled “Texas’ water quality challenge and the need for better communication in an era of increasing water quality contamination events” authored by Sapna Mulki, Carlos Rubinstein and Julianne Saletta.
As Texas cities experience an increase in incidents associated with water quality contamination, the need for public education and engagement increases. The discussion in this paper identifies, based on publicly available data, three of the most common incidents in Texas related to drinking water and environmental contamination: boil water notices, sanitary sewer overflows and lead in drinking water.
According to the abstract, the increased frequency of incidents that threaten water quality often erodes public trust in the city and utility, thus making it more difficult in the long term to get public support for increased investment in water and wastewater infrastructure. The recommendations in this study focus on how to manage communications when events associated with water quality create a public relations challenge for city and utility leaders.
The journal, an online, peer-reviewed journal published by the nonprofit, the Texas Water Journal, and the Texas Water Resources Institute, publishes papers as they are complete. It is devoted to the timely consideration of Texas water resources management, research and policy issues from a multidisciplinary perspective that integrates science, engineering, law, planning and other disciplines. It also provides updates on key state legislation and policy changes by Texas administrative agencies.
Subscribe to receive emails when papers are published.