Measuring Economic Benefits Of Water Pollution Abatement In An Irrigated River Basin

Develops a multiple parameter analytical procedure for estimating benefits of water pollution abatement.

Until recently, there has been general agreement that improvement and preservation of water quality, though costly, provided economic and social benefits that outweighed the expense. Now, however, some observers are beginning to question whether the costs of the 1972 Water Pollution Control Act may actually exceed those benefits. This book provides answers to some of the questions that have been raised. The authors give measures of several important nonmarket benefits of improved water quality in Colorado's South Platte River Basin and empirically test and confirm the Weisbrod and Krutilla proposals that the general public may be willing to pay for preservation of environmental amenities and that option value and other preservation values must be added to recreation-use values to give an accurate picture of the social benefits of environmental preservation and restoration. Their findings include the fact that even those who do not expect to use the river basin for recreation are willing to pay for the maintenance of a natural ecosystem and to bequest clean water to future generations. The authors also arrive at average amounts households are willing to pay for improved water quality to enhance enjoyment of water-based recreation activities. They suggest that, without such information, it is highly unlikely that sufficient resources will be allocated for the preservation of unique environments and for the improvement of those being degraded.

In this study, discharge and loadings are empirically related to surveyed direct dollar and energy expenses. An energy I/O national model is coupled with a comprehensive Willamette River dissolved oxygen model. Costs estimated for discharges resulting from different pollution control strategies are then transformed by I/O to total energy costs. Three approaches to environmental control for the Willamette were examined. One was that of current enforcement coupled with present levels of augmentation. Another consisted of less augmentation and increased wastewater treatment. Appropriate tactics involved advanced secondary methods of treatment, regionalization of treatment plants, and yet more stringent effluent requirements for industry. The third approach consisted of increased flow augmentation for water quality control. Corresponding treatment was somewhat relaxed.