Have You Done Your Duty? Impact of Direct Mailing Campaign on Septic System Owners' Maintenance Knowledge and Behaviors in Coastal Texas Watersheds

Authors

• Audrey McCrary, Texas Water Resources Institute, Texas A&M AgriLifeFollow
• T. Allen Berthold, Texas Water Resources Institute, Texas A&M AgriLife

Volume

64

Issue

2

Abstract

As part of a watershed protection plan, the Texas Water Resources Institute and AgriLife Extension Service developed and distributed an educational postcard (``mailer'') about septic system maintenance to mailing addresses outside of public sewer service areas. The mailer was distributed four times within 1 year. The impact of this mailer was evaluated with a retrospective pre/post-test within a mailed survey. Overall, the mailer was effective at increasing knowledge of septic system owners and prompting maintenance action. Mailers can be a cost-effective alternative for educational initiatives where the target audience is not able to or interested in in-person or online programs.

Authors’ Contribution Statement

Audrey McCrary contributed to this study through conceptualization, data collection and analysis, visualization, and writing – original draft. Allen Berthold contributed to this study through funding acquisition, conceptualization, supervision, and writing – review and editing.

Data Availability

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 License.

Recommended Citation

McCrary, A., & Berthold, T. (2026). Have You Done Your Duty? Impact of Direct Mailing Campaign on Septic System Owners' Maintenance Knowledge and Behaviors in Coastal Texas Watersheds. Journal of Extension, 64(2), Article 18. https://doi.org/10.66752/1077-5315.8951