Tradeoffs among Ecosystem Services, Performance Certainty, and Cost-efficiency in Implementation of the Chesapeake Bay Total Maximum Daily Load
Agricultural and Resource Economics Review(2013)
摘要
The cost-effectiveness of total maximum daily load (TMDL] programs depends heavily on program design. We develop an optimization framework to evaluate design choices for the TMDL for the Potomac River, a Chesapeake Bay sub-basin. Scenario results suggest that policies inhibiting nutrient trading or offsets between point and nonpoint sources increase compliance costs markedly and reduce ecosystem service co-benefits relative to a least-cost solution. Key decision tradeoffs highlighted by the analysis include whether agricultural production should be exchanged for low-cost pollution abatement and other environmental benefits and whether lower compliance costs and higher co-benefits provide adequate compensation for lower certainty of water-quality outcomes.Key Words: Chesapeake Bay, cost-effectiveness, ecosystem services, environmental policy, optimization model, pollution control, TMDL, water quality trading(ProQuest: ... denotes formulae omitted.)Total maximum daily loads (TMDLs] are authorized by the Clean Water Act (33 U.S.C. § 1344] to limit pollutant inputs to local water bodies for which water quality is a concern. Historically TMDLs most commonly have been applied in relatively small nontidal watersheds. Increasingly in response to a variety of forces (some are explained in Copeland (2005]], many states are developing more comprehensive listings of impaired water bodies that include tidal waterbodies and large watersheds. Once such waterbodies are listed as impaired, environmental agencies develop TMDLs to bring them into compliance with their designated uses (e.g., swimmable, fishable, habitat], TMDLs for tidal waterbodies (e.g., Long Island Sound and Chesapeake Bay] often require multi-state initiatives and involve high compliance costs, suggesting a need for regional-scale design strategies to promote cost-effectiveness.A TMDL is designed by (i] estimating the maximum amount of one or more pollutants that can enter a waterway without compromising its designated use, and (ii] allocating the allowable amount of pollution among sectors of the sources of that pollution (e.g., municipal, agricultural, and industrial]. The designated use in Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries is aquatic habitat, a designation that sets high standards for in-water conditions. Load allocations generally can be enforced only for permitted point source (PS] emitters, which include wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs], some stormwater (SW] systems, and, most recently, large confined animal feeding operations. However, states are increasingly looking to allocate loads (and, consequently, load reductions] to nonpoint-source (NPS] emitters, which include agricultural producers, property developers, and SW management entities, to more equitably distribute reductions across all emitters.Because NPS emitters are not regulated at the federal level, state regulators must either create legislation to limit their emissions or seek creative approaches to incentivize them to generate low-cost reductions voluntarily. In Chesapeake Bay, regulators are promoting participation by NPS emitters in multiple ways, including substantial support for water-quality trading markets. That support includes providing regulatory flexibility that allows emitters to buy and sell nutrient and sediment credits, developing web-based tools to reduce market transaction costs, and creating institutions to manage legal risks.However, the tools created to facilitate markets so far have not examined how specific program rules affect market development, such as their influence on the supply of available credits or the availability of trading partners. Such details can have dramatic effects on whether the markets will develop (Ghosh, Ribaudo, and Shortle 2011, Ribaudo and Gottlieb 2011, Shabman and Stephenson 2007, King and Kuch 2003] and whether the offsets will be cost-effective (Nickerson, Ribaudo, and Higgins 2010], In addition, market rules can affect the environmental neutrality of the trading and offset programs relative to alternative policies. …
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关键词
ecosystem services,tmdl,cost effectiveness
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