VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — A majority of Virginia voters are concerned about pollution, particularly plastics clogging waterways and runoff that contaminates waters, according to a recent survey by the Virginia Coastal Zone Management Program, Clean Virginia Waterways at Longwood University and OpinionWorks. Most voters also support legislation to cut pollution.
Steve Raabe, founder and president of OpinionWorks, said he was surprised that while 87% of respondents called water pollution a serious problem, most didn’t realize that it comes from people discarding plastic bottles, tires, food containers and more on land.
When the respondents think of ocean debris, he said, they assumed it came from fishermen dumping trash.
