Full Description
The tremendous loss of groundwater has been a longstanding concern in Kansas, where areas of the High Plains aquifer have plummeted. Groundwater Citizenship: Well Owners, Environmentalism, and the Depletion of the High Plains Aquifer investigates water conservation efforts, environmental priorities, and water supply awareness among private water well owners, a key social group whose water usage is pivotal to safeguarding aquifers. This book discusses how reliance on private and public water supplies influences watering practices by asking if owning a well changes the propensity to conserve water. To explore how water supplies shape environmental actions and beliefs, sociologist Brock Ternes constructed a one-of-a-kind dataset by surveying over 850 well owners and non-well owners throughout Kansas. His analyses reveal that well ownership influences several dimensions of water consumption, and he identifies how Kansans' notions of environmentalism are recalibrated by their systems of water provision. This book frames well owners as unique conservationists whose water use is shaped by larger structures—aquifers, water laws, and food systems. Groundwater Citizenship takes a sociological look at water systems to facilitate adaptive approaches to sustainable resource management.
Contents
Table of Contents
Abbreviations
Foreword
Preface
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1: The Overworked Ogallala
Chapter 2: Strategies to Manage Groundwater in Kansas
Chapter 3: Water Supplies and Practice
Chapter 4: Investigating Groundwater Citizenship
Appendix to Chapter 4
Chapter 5: Hydrologic Habitus and Unique Environmentalism
Appendix to Chapter 5
Chapter 6: Saving for a Dry Day
Appendix to Chapter 6
Chapter 7: Policymaking for Groundwater Economies
Chapter 8: Aquifer Ethics and Resiliency in Lands of Underground Rain
References
About the Author
