Carolina Clear to survey Pee Dee residents about water-quality awareness

Published: August 11, 2009

Carolina Clear image by: Clemson University

FLORENCE - Carolina Clear, Clemson University's stormwater pollution education and awareness program, wants to gauge what Pee Dee residents understand about their local water quality and what effects their actions can have.

During the next four weeks, students from Clemson's Department of Sociology will conduct telephone surveys with households in Darlington and Florence counties to understand what educational messages are needed to help protect the area's valuable water resources.

The surveys will be conducted from 5 to 9 p.m. Monday to Friday and from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays. Each survey should last no longer than 15 minutes. The goal is to have 400 residents complete the survey.

The purpose of the surveys is two-fold, said Katie Giacalone, Carolina Clear's statewide coordinator.

First, the surveys will yield a better understanding of how South Carolinians utilize their local waterways, whether for recreation, fishing, commercial means or other uses. This information helps watershed managers know who their audiences arer and how much they value clean water, Giacalone said.

Second, the survey will illustrate what people know about how their own actions affect local water quality.

"Whether we know it or not, we all generate polluted runoff," Giacalone said. "From not picking up after our dogs to coolant that drips from our car, stormwater pollution is people pollution, and we all can play a role in keeping South Carolina's waters clean."

Through the Florence Darlington Stormwater Consortium in the Pee Dee region, Carolina Clear's goal is to minimize polluted stormwater runoff by assisting in educating the general public, youth, developers, engineers, homeowners and government officials about how they can keep water in the state's streams, rivers and basins as clean as possible.

Carolina Clear has conducted similar surveys in the Lowcountry, Midlands and Grand Strand regions.

Preliminary results from the survey will be available to the public in the fall through the Carolina Clear Web site, local newsletters and presentations in the area. A full report will be published by January.

The results will be evaluated alongside previous surveys completed by the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control, the Saluda-Reedy Watershed Consortium and national surveys completed by other universities.

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