AWWA ACE68960

AWWA ACE68960 Saving the Environment One Drop at a Time
Conference Proceeding by American Water Works Association, 11/01/2008

Joung, Katie Shulte

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This powerpoint presentation begins by providing a brief overview of the California Urban Water Conservation Council (CUWCC) and the project background. Methodology includes: the environmental benefits valuationrequires an estimate of both ecologicalimpacts and related dollar values;ecological impacts are conceptually well-definedbut extremely difficult to measure(e.g. fish populations); determine people's preference forenvironmental services relative to othergoods and services;represented by Willingness to Pay (WTP)for an enhancement, or Willingness toAccept (WTA) for a degradation of service;Implicit Methods - look at data on actualexpenditures for travel, value of timespent, etc.;Explicit Methods - construct surveys toelicit WTP or WTA under specificscenarios; goal is to count externalizedenvironmental costs that no-one is payingfor - these may be small but they are notzero;baseline is current conditions;use CALFED Record of Decision to defineenvironmental "list" of services (impacts)associated with the water column; and,exception for pumping related air quality. Major findings include the following:Important Tool for EvaluatingEconomic Benefits;Not Perfect (no model is)- Difficult to quantify EB;sets only the LOWEST levels ofavoided Environmental Costs;Transparent, Scalable, Modifiable; Model introduces necessary simplificationson complex physical relationships;likely undervalues the environment- a little water can have a lot of value;more benefits needs to be identified;many data sources are older;add environmental water transactions andriparian/wetland habitat restoration;relationships are too linear; and, at its core, the model provides a usefulaccounting framework for relating water conservation to changes in areaof origin water supply, changes inarea of origin water supply to changesin environmental services, andchanges in environmental services tosocial economic value. Includes figures.