CARI: Center for Applied Rural Innovation

 

Title

Environmental Issues and Perceptions of Rural Nebraskans

Document Type

Article

Date of this Version

July 2002

Comments

Published by the Center for Applied Rural Innovation, University of Nebraska – Lincoln. Copyright © by J. Allen, S. Cordes, A. Smith, M. Spilker, and A. Hamilton.

This working paper presents findings from the first annual Nebraska Rural Poll. The study is based on 2,754 responses from households in the 87 nonmetropolitan counties in the state. The objectives of this paper are to provide information on how rural Nebraskans view the following issues and questions:

1. Does the state of Nebraska currently do enough to prevent groundwater depletion?

2. Does the state of Nebraska currently do enough to prevent groundwater pollution?

3. Should requirements for preventing environmental damaged be relaxed to reduce business compliance costs?

4. Should requirements for cleanup of environmental damage be relaxed to reduce business compliance costs?

5. Does the use of chemicals by agricultural producers hurt the environment?

6. If a farmer causes environmental damage should he/she be required to pay for it?

7. Should farm commodity program payments be contingent upon environmental compliance?

8. Should the state of Nebraska legally recognize the relationship between ground and surface water (conjunctive use)?

Key findings include the following:

• Rural Nebraskans are about equally divided in their opinions of whether the state does enough to prevent groundwater depletion (38% yes, 34% no).
• Forty-two percent of rural Nebraskans believe that the state does not do enough to prevent groundwater pollution.
• Farmers are more likely than other occupational groups to believe the state does enough to prevent groundwater depletion and pollution.
• Over half of rural Nebraskans (58%) do not believe that regulatory requirements for prevention of environmental damage should be relaxed to reduce business compliance costs.
• Those individuals in rural Nebraska with higher levels of educational attainment are less likely to believe that environmental regulations should be relaxed to reduce business compliance costs.
• Sixty-three percent of rural Nebraskans do not believe that the regulatory requirements for cleanup of environmental damage should be relaxed.
• Over one-half of rural Nebraskans (58%) believe that agriculture=s use of chemicals hurts the environment.
• Sixty percent of rural Nebraskans believe that farm commodity program payments should be tied to environmental compliance.
• Sixty-three percent of rural Nebraskans agree that the state should legally recognize the relationship between ground and surface water (conjunctive use).