Economics of Structural Stormwater BMPs in North Carolina

摘要

Urban stormwater runoff and the associated negative quantitative and qualitative effects can be controlled by various best management practices (BMPs). These innovations run along the continuum of small, or site specific, to large, or regional, scale practices. This publication focuses on which BMPs work best at removing selected pollutants and their relative costs for NC conditions. The costs of BMPs include both installment (construction and land) and annual operating costs (inspection and maintenance). Construction costs and annual operating costs are statistically analyzed for effects of scale by means of the estimation of BMP specific nonlinear equations relating the costs to watershed size. Structural stormwater BMPs require initial capital investments and then annual operating costs. To estimate total economic impacts the Present Value of Costs approach was used. Annual costs were related to the area treated and to the removal effectiveness of the specific BMP for a proper economic evaluation.