Beyond “Us and Them”: Why Do Landowners Disagree About Local Water Pollution?

Abstract

Collaborative watershed governance (CWG) is one strategy to address nonpoint source water pollution. While many collaborative watershed arrangements unfold in local settings, institutional analyses of CWG often do not consider landowners perceive intracommunity tensions about water pollution. We consider how diverse landowners attribute water pollution to agricultural and residential sources, and how these causal attributions may underpin perceived intracommunity tensions. We use survey data (n = 373) from the Owasco Lake watershed of central New York to examine water quality perceptions, concerns, and beliefs across year-round lakeshore, seasonal lakeshore, off shore residential, and agricultural landowners. Each type of landowner has a unique process through which water pollution causal attributions develop. Perceived intracommunity differences are more pronounced for non-farming landowners who blame agriculture for water pollution. With a better understanding of how landowners perceive the views of one another, watershed managers can tailor local communication efforts to emphasize shared views.

Keywords:

• Community conflict
• environmental governance
• landownership
• nonpoint source pollution
• watersheds

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the three anonymous reviewers, the project funders at the USDA, and our collaborators at Cornell University: Dr. M. Todd Walter and the staff of the Center for Conservation Social Sciences.

Additional information

Funding

This work was funded by National Institute of Food and Agriculture.