IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/jenpmg/v64y2021i3p517-535.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Impact of upstream plant level pollution on downstream water quality: evidence from the clean water act

Author

Listed:
  • Lopamudra Chakraborti

Abstract

This is the first study to find empirical evidence that pollutant inputs from major point sources worsen downstream water quality, net of upstream pollution levels, and controlling for location-specific factors. We utilize panel data on monthly biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) concentration for a sample of 87 municipal and industrial plants located in the states of Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, for the period 1990-2003. Monthly dissolved oxygen (DO) from 67 locations is the measure of water quality. We find that an increase in aggregate BOD (for multiple plants) results in downstream net of upstream DO to decline by 0.001 mg/l. Despite the small magnitude (due to natural attenuation), the results are robust to distance traveled by pollutant and seasonal considerations of high temperature or low stream flow. We infer that point sources have a significant negative impact on ambient water quality net of non-point sources of pollution at upstream locations.

Suggested Citation

  • Lopamudra Chakraborti, 2021. "Impact of upstream plant level pollution on downstream water quality: evidence from the clean water act," Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 64(3), pages 517-535, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:jenpmg:v:64:y:2021:i:3:p:517-535
    DOI: 10.1080/09640568.2020.1776227
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/09640568.2020.1776227
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/09640568.2020.1776227?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. David A Keiser & Joseph S Shapiro, 2019. "Consequences of the Clean Water Act and the Demand for Water Quality," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 134(1), pages 349-396.
    2. McConnell, Virginia D. & Schwarz, Gregory E., 1992. "The supply and demand for pollution control: Evidence from wastewater treatment," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 23(1), pages 54-77, July.
    3. Hilary Sigman, 2002. "International Spillovers and Water Quality in Rivers: Do Countries Free Ride?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 92(4), pages 1152-1159, September.
    4. David A. Keiser & Catherine L. Kling & Joseph S. Shapiro, 2019. "The low but uncertain measured benefits of US water quality policy," Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 116(12), pages 5262-5269, March.
    5. V. Kerry Smith & Carlos Valcarcel Wolloh, 2012. "Has Surface Water Quality Improved Since the Clean Water Act?," NBER Working Papers 18192, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Laura Grant & Christian Langpap, 2019. "Private provision of public goods by environmental groups," Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 116(12), pages 5334-5340, March.
    7. Bandyopadhyay Sushenjit & Horowitz John, 2006. "Do Plants Overcomply with Water Pollution Regulations? The Role of Discharge Variability," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 6(1), pages 1-32, January.
    8. Sigman, Hilary, 2005. "Transboundary spillovers and decentralization of environmental policies," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 50(1), pages 82-101, July.
    9. Jay P. Shimshack, 2014. "The Economics of Environmental Monitoring and Enforcement," Annual Review of Resource Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 6(1), pages 339-360, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Yuzhi Yang & Erik Ansink & Jens Gudmundsson, 2023. "How to Pollute a River If You Must," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 23-036/VIII, Tinbergen Institute, revised 01 Jun 2024.
    2. Yuzhi Yang & Erik Ansink, 2022. "The river pollution claims problem," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 22-058/VIII, Tinbergen Institute.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Lopamudra Chakraborti, 2020. "Effects of Water Quality Monitoring on Plant-Level Pollution: Evidence from the Clean Water Act," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 96(3), pages 349-365.
    2. Grenestam, Erik & Nordin, Martin, 2018. "Estimating the impact of agri-environmental payments on nutrient runoff using a unique combination of data," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 388-398.
    3. Catherine L. Kling & Raymond W. Arritt & Gray Calhoun & David A. Keiser, 2017. "Integrated Assessment Models of the Food, Energy, and Water Nexus: A Review and an Outline of Research Needs," Annual Review of Resource Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 9(1), pages 143-163, October.
    4. Ying She & Yaobin Liu & Yangu Deng & Lei Jiang, 2020. "Can China’s Government-Oriented Environmental Regulation Reduce Water Pollution? Evidence from Water Pollution Intensive Firms," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(19), pages 1-19, September.
    5. Zaveri,Esha Dilip & Russ,Jason Daniel & Desbureaux,Sebastien Gael & Damania,Richard & Rodella,Aude-Sophie & Ribeiro Paiva De Souza,Giovanna, 2020. "The Nitrogen Legacy : The Long-Term Effects of Water Pollution on Human Capital," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9143, The World Bank.
    6. You, Chen & Cifuentes-Faura, Javier & Liu, Xiaoqian & Wu, Jinqun, 2024. "Can the government environmental vertical reform reduce air pollution? A quasi-natural experiment in China," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 947-963.
    7. Catherine L. Kling & Raymond W. Arritt & Gray Calhoun & David A. Keiser, 2016. "Research Needs and Challenges in the FEW System: Coupling Economic Models with Agronomic, Hydrologic, and Bioenergy Models for Sustainable Food, Energy, and Water Systems," Center for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD) Publications 16-wp563, Center for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD) at Iowa State University.
    8. Maoyong Fan & Qu Tang & Jianxin Wu & Junji Xiao, 2023. "Unintended environmental consequences of place‐based economic policies," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 105(1), pages 291-315, January.
    9. Jerch, Rhiannon L. & Phaneuf, Daniel J., 2024. "Cities and water quality," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 107(C).
    10. Sheila M. Olmstead & Hilary Sigman, 2015. "Damming the Commons: An Empirical Analysis of International Cooperation and Conflict in Dam Location," Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, University of Chicago Press, vol. 2(4), pages 497-526.
    11. David A Keiser & Joseph S Shapiro, 2019. "Consequences of the Clean Water Act and the Demand for Water Quality," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 134(1), pages 349-396.
    12. David A. Keiser & Joseph K. Shapiro, 2018. "Consequences of the Clean Water Act and the Demand for Water Quality," Center for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD) Publications 17-wp571, Center for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD) at Iowa State University.
    13. Gonzalez, Rodrigo Barbone & Haas Ornelas, José Renato & Silva, Thiago Christiano, 2023. "The Value of Clean Water: Evidence from an Environmental Disaster," IDB Publications (Working Papers) 13273, Inter-American Development Bank.
    14. Matthew E. Kahn & Pei Li & Daxuan Zhao, 2013. "Pollution Control Effort at China's River Borders: When Does Free Riding Cease?," NBER Working Papers 19620, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. Millimet, Daniel L., 2013. "Environmental Federalism: A Survey of the Empirical Literature," IZA Discussion Papers 7831, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    16. Evans, Mary F. & Stafford, Sarah L., 2019. "The Clean Air Act Watch List and federal oversight of state enforcement efforts," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 170-184.
    17. Fredriksson, Per G. & Wollscheid, Jim R., 2014. "Environmental decentralization and political centralization," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 402-410.
    18. Kuwayama, Yusuke & Olmstead, Sheila & Zheng, Jiameng, 2022. "A more comprehensive estimate of the value of water quality," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 207(C).
    19. Boucekkine, Raouf & Fabbri, Giorgio & Federico, Salvatore & Gozzi, Fausto, 2022. "A dynamic theory of spatial externalities," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 133-165.
    20. Paudel, Jayash & Crago, Christine L., 2018. "Fertilizer Use and Water Quality in the United States," 2018 Annual Meeting, August 5-7, Washington, D.C. 274312, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • Q52 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Pollution Control Adoption and Costs; Distributional Effects; Employment Effects
    • Q53 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Air Pollution; Water Pollution; Noise; Hazardous Waste; Solid Waste; Recycling

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:jenpmg:v:64:y:2021:i:3:p:517-535. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/CJEP20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.