U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Valuation of Surface Water Quality Improvements

摘要

For more than thirty years, surface water pollution has been regulated under the CWA. Over time, EPA regulation has attempted to control increasingly focused sets of water quality stressors and to monetize increasingly less tangible categories of benefits. Since 1982, the main assessment tool has been benefit-cost analysis. Solid progress has been made in estimating benefits, with EPA now relying less heavily on case studies and using more sophisticated water quality models. However, the valuation of the benefits from surface water quality improvements has lagged somewhat behind. This article has discussed three areas that have been particularly challenging for EPA as it has sought to improve its benefits estimates.