Utilizing effective community engagement strategies to enhance the built environment by eliminating sanitary sewer overflows in an urban setting

Although much is being done to eliminate sanitary sewer overflows, it is estimated there are still up to 75,000 incidents each year across the country. These overflows of untreated sewage can compromise water quality, contaminate waterways and threaten public health.  The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences recommended areas for further research, which included studying methods and channels to translate research findings to the community and improving communication strategies, particularly encouraging community participation in research efforts.  Currently, there has been no research utilizing the Community Readiness Model in built environment interventions, but a review of the literature clearly states that community engagement is vital to successful environmental management. 

Blueprint Columbus is the city of Columbus’ plan to eliminate sanitary sewer overflows by addressing the source of the problem mostly occurring on private property.  Using the Community Readiness Model (CRM), community members from business, health care, education, and civic sectors were interviewed from five communities involved in Columbus’ approach to addressing sewer overflow. Key Informant Interviews were utilized to determine the community’s perceptions and determine readiness to accept change surrounding the elimination of sanitary sewer overflows.  Factors for analysis within the structured CRM interview process included the existing efforts to address the issue, community knowledge of the efforts, leadership and community climate, knowledge about the issue and available resources.

A mixed-model approach was adopted that included a conventional content analysis of the individual transcribed interviews.  Findings validated our study hypothesis about the lack of community and leadership awareness of sewer overflows in areas where there has been limited community engagement.  Based on the results of CRM’s qualitative scoring and thematic analysis process, appropriate and targeted intervention strategies were developed to address specific community readiness levels in each individual community.