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Economic Modeling for Source Water Protection
Citation:
Heberling, Matthew AND J. Price. Economic Modeling for Source Water Protection. 2021 KU Environmental Engineering Conference, Virtual, April 21, 2021.
Impact/Purpose:
Watershed protection can play an important role in producing safe drinking water. However, many municipalities and drinking water treatment plants lack the information on the potential benefits of watershed protection as an approach to improving source water quality. This invited presentation to state partners, environmental engineers, utility managers, and students will introduce the role economics has in estimating avoided treatment costs and determining whether source water protection is a cost-effective.
Description:
With the expanding list of concerns about drinking water quality and safety (e.g., harmful algal blooms, disinfection byproducts), it is becoming increasingly important to understand the associated costs and potential benefits of better watershed management for drinking water treatment plants. This presentation will begin with a review of economic studies that estimate the benefits (i.e., avoided treatment costs) of improving source water quality for treatment plants. We also will present a general approach for estimating the incentives for a drinking water treatment plant to invest in source water protection. A case study will help illustrate the approach and identify future research.
