Clean Water High Priority For Urban Residents

More than 90 percent of Idaho’s urban residents consider clean drinking water, clean groundwater and clean rivers “extremely” or “very” important, according to a University of Idaho survey.

By comparison, only 55 percent of urban residents in Idaho consider salmon extinction extremely or very important, the university reported.

“I think water quality is probably the most important environmental issue in the state,” said survey author Bob Mahler, a soil scientist and 1998 recipient of the Governor’s Award for Excellence in Agriculture.

Mahler’s March 1997 mail survey questioned residents of Idaho’s six largest cities. The results will help guide the University of Idaho Cooperative Extension System’s water quality programming over the next five years.

At least 75 percent of the respondents said they consider Idaho’s groundwater quality good or excellent, while 58 percent said surface water quality is good but deteriorating and 54 percent said groundwater quality is good but deteriorating.

In fact, Mahler said studies suggest overall surface water quality has improved over the past 30 years and that sediment now is the most common pollutant.