The tremendous loss of groundwater has been a longstanding concern in Kansas, where areas of the High Plains aquifer have plummeted. Groundwater Citizenship: Well Owners, Environmentalism, and the Depletion of the High Plains Aquifer investigates water conservation efforts, environmental priorities, and water supply awareness among private water well owners, a key social group whose water usage is pivotal to safeguarding aquifers. This book discusses how reliance on private and public water supplies influences watering practices by asking if owning a well changes the propensity to conserve water. To explore how water supplies shape environmental actions and beliefs, sociologist Brock Ternes constructed a one-of-a-kind dataset by surveying over 850 well owners and non-well owners throughout Kansas. His analyses reveal that well ownership influences several dimensions of water consumption, and he identifies how Kansans notions of environmentalism are recalibrated by their systems of water provision. This book frames well owners as unique conservationists whose water use is shaped by larger structuresaquifers, water laws, and food systems.Groundwater Citizenship takes a sociological look at water systems to facilitate adaptive approaches to sustainable resource management.

Brock Ternes is visiting assistant professor in the Department of Sociology and Criminology at the University of North Carolina - Wilmington.

Table of Contents

Abbreviations

Foreword

Preface

Acknowledgments

Chapter 1: The Overworked Ogallala

Chapter 2: Strategies to Manage Groundwater in Kansas

Chapter 3: Water Supplies and Practice

Chapter 4: Investigating Groundwater Citizenship

Appendix to Chapter 4

Chapter 5: Hydrologic Habitus and Unique Environmentalism

Appendix to Chapter 5

Chapter 6: Saving for a Dry Day

Appendix to Chapter 6

Chapter 7: Policymaking for Groundwater Economies

Chapter 8: Aquifer Ethics and Resiliency in Lands of Underground Rain

References

About the Author