Clean Water Advocacy - Newsroom - AMSA in the News
Survey: Safe, Clean Drinking Water Is a
Necessity
Carol Kocheisen
Posted: June 2, 2003
Republican pollster Frank Luntz said his recent survey of 800
Americans indicated, “Safe and clean water is not just a priority, it is a
necessity.”
Perceived primarly as a health issue, consistently (across the nation) clean
drinking water and recreational waters that are safe for human activities far
outweigh the importance of other infrastructure initiatives receiving federal
funding, according to the survey.
Furthermore, the respondents, by a wide margin (70 percent vs. 30 percent)
believe clean and safe water “is a national issue and the federal government
should help states and localities pay for the necessary sewerage and wastewater
treatment systems.”
Clean and safe water is considered a right, not a privilege and 51 percent of
those polled believe water is “in the greatest need of a trust fund that would
guarantee federal money . . . to help pay for maintenance and improvements.”
“Every population subgroup without exception picked a Clean Water Trust Fund
over trust funds that already exist,” Luntz said.
Poll results prioritized water over all other infrastructure programs combined —
51 percent for clean water; 23 percent for roads and highways; 12 percent for
mass transit; 4 percent for airports and 4 percent for harbors — all of which,
except for water, have trust funds.
According to Luntz, those polled were also “willing to put their money where
their mouth is” and would support a 1 percent tax increase were such revenues
dedicated solely to clean and safe water.
“Clean water is a health issue, not an environmental concern, and it is as much
about tomorrow as it is about today. That is about the most potent political
combination you can have,” the poll results state.
The survey was conducted for the Association of Metropolitan Sewerage Agencies.