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Effect of Forest Cover on Water Treatment Costs

Author

Listed:
  • Travis Warziniack

    (USDA Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station, 240 W. Prospect Rd., Fort Collins, CO 80526, USA)

  • Chi Ho Sham

    (#x2020;Eastern Research Group (ERG), 160 State Street, 9th Floor, Boston, MA 02109, USA)

  • Robert Morgan

    (#x2021;Beaver Water District, 301 N. Primrose Road, Lowell, AR 72745, USA)

  • Yasha Feferholtz

    (#xA7;University of Wyoming, EcoHealth Alliance, 460 West 34th Street, 17th Floor, New York, NY 10001-2320, USA)

Abstract

This paper studies the relationship between forest cover and drinking water chemical treatment costs using land use data and a survey by the American Water Works Association (AWWA). The survey gathers cost and water quality data from 37 treatment plants in forested ecoregions of the United States. We model the effect of forest conversion on the cost of water treatment using a two-step process. First, we examine the effect of changes in land use on water quality through an ecological production function. Second, we examine the effect of changes in water quality on cost of treatment through an economic benefits function. We find a negative relationship between forest cover and turbidity, but no relationship between forest cover and total organic carbon (TOC). Increasing forest cover in a watershed by 1% reduces turbidity by 3%, and increasing development by 1% in a watershed increases turbidity by 3%. The impact of development is more consistent across models than the impact of forest cover. We also find a large impact on turbidity from grazing in the watershed. Our economic benefits function shows a 1% increase in turbidity increases water treatment costs by 0.19%, and 1% increase in TOC increases water treatment costs by 0.46%. TOC has a clearer impact on costs than turbidity, which becomes insignificant when we omit one of our observations with high turbidity.

Suggested Citation

  • Travis Warziniack & Chi Ho Sham & Robert Morgan & Yasha Feferholtz, 2017. "Effect of Forest Cover on Water Treatment Costs," Water Economics and Policy (WEP), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 3(04), pages 1-19, October.
  • Handle: RePEc:wsi:wepxxx:v:03:y:2017:i:04:n:s2382624x17500060
    DOI: 10.1142/S2382624X17500060
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Abildtrup, Jens & Garcia, Serge & Stenger, Anne, 2013. "The effect of forest land use on the cost of drinking water supply: A spatial econometric analysis," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 126-136.
    2. Moore, Walter B. & McCarl, Bruce A., 1987. "Off-Site Costs Of Soil Erosion: A Case Study In The Willamette Valley," Western Journal of Agricultural Economics, Western Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 12(1), pages 1-8, July.
    3. Pizer, William & Harrington, Winston & Shih, Jhih-Shyang & Gillingham, Kenneth, 2004. "Economies of Scale and Technical Efficiency in Community Water Systems," RFF Working Paper Series dp-04-15, Resources for the Future.
    4. Thomas P. Holmes, 1988. "The Offsite Impact of Soil Erosion on the Water Treatment Industry," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 64(4), pages 356-366.
    5. Johnson, Kenneth M. & Beale, Calvin L., 2002. "Nonmetro Recreation Counties Their Identification and Rapid Growth," Rural America/ Rural Development Perspectives, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service, vol. 17(4), December.
    6. Ivan Hascic & JunJie Wu, 2006. "Land Use and Watershed Health in the United States," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 82(2), pages 214-239.
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Jones, Kelly W. & Gannon, Benjamin & Timberlake, Thomas & Chamberlain, James L. & Wolk, Brett, 2022. "Societal benefits from wildfire mitigation activities through payments for watershed services: Insights from Colorado," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 135(C).
    2. Pan, Zehua & Brouwer, Roy & Emelko, Monica B., 2022. "Correlating forested green infrastructure to water rates and adverse water quality incidents: A spatial instrumental variable regression model," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 140(C).
    3. Price, James I. & Heberling, Matthew T., 2018. "The Effects of Source Water Quality on Drinking Water Treatment Costs: A Review and Synthesis of Empirical Literature," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 151(C), pages 195-209.
    4. Blachly, Ben & Sims, Charles & Warziniack, Travis, 2024. "Ecosystem complementarities: Evidence from over 700 U.S. watersheds," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 219(C).
    5. Warziniack, Travis & Sims, Charles & Haas, Jessica, 2019. "Fire and the joint production of ecosystem services: A spatial-dynamic optimization approach," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 1-1.

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