Clean Coastal Waters Understanding and Reducing the Effects of Nutrient Pollution (2000) / Chapter Skim
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8 Water Quality Goals
8 Water Quality Goals
Pages 237-268
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From page 237... ...
In designing policies to achieve nutrient reductions, decision-makers will need to choose between voluntary approaches and mandatory controls or financial penalties. Each approach has advantages and disadvantages, and managers must assess how successful a given approach is likely to be in their specific context.
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From page 238... ...
Managers might increase the likely success of a voluntary approach by making it clear that, if the voluntary approach is not successful, an approach based on disincentives will be adopted. · An information clearinghouse should be established that provides local managers with information about the cost and effectiveness of alternative source control methods, the effectiveness of alternative policy options, and the policy experiences that other managers have had in attempting to control nutrient over-enrichment.
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From page 239... ...
, chlorophyll, or phytoplankton biomass (NRC 1993a) are likely to be better indicators of an estuary's eutrophic state and hence better measures of whether overall water quality goals (i.e., desired reductions in eutrophication)
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From page 240... ...
Establishing Criteria and Standards Targets usually fall into two categories: water quality criteria and water quality standards. McCutcheon et al.
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From page 241... ...
Effluent standards are often technology-based and may be imposed even if the level of contamination is less than that required to achieve ambient water quality standards (McCutcheon et al.
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From page 242... ...
It is likely that improvements due to reduced nutrient loadings will be felt only over a period of several years because of nutrient storage in the system, especially in sediments, although in some cases some systems may show a rapid response. Current Criteria and Standards Most water quality criteria in the United States are based on the "Gold Book" (EPA 1987)
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From page 243... ...
Under proposed 1999 modifications to the TMDL process, a TMDL must contain the following minimum elements (EPA 1999a) : · the name and geographic location of the impaired or threatened waterbody for which the TMDL is being established; · identification of the pollutant for which the TMDL is being established and quantification of the pollutant load that may be present in the waterbody and still ensure attainment and maintenance of water quality standards; identification of the amount or degree by which the current pollutant load in the waterbody deviates from the pollutant load needed to attain or maintain water quality standards; identification of the source categories, source subcategories, or individual sources of the pollutant for which the wasteload allocations and load allocations are being established; · wasteload allocations for the pollutant to each industrial and municipal point source; for discharges subject to a general permit, such as storm water, combined sewer overflows, abandoned mines, or combined animal feeding operations; pollutant loads that do not need to be reduced to attain or maintain water quality standards; and supporting technical analyses demonstrating that wasteload allocations, when implemented, will attain and maintain water quality standards; · load allocations, ranging from reasonably accurate estimates to gross allotments, to nonpoint sources of a pollutant, including atmospheric deposition or natural background sources; and supporting technical analyses demonstrating that load allocations, when implemented, will attain and maintain water quality standards; · a margin of safety expressed as unallocated assimilative capacity or conservative analytical assumptions used in establishing the TMDL (e.g., derivation of numeric loads, modeling assumptions, or effectiveness of proposed management actions that ensure attainment and maintenance of water quality standards for the allocated pollutant)
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From page 244... ...
of this process virtually mandates a watershed approach since waters are impaired by multiple dischargers and pollutants, and these derive, to a considerable extent, from nonpoint sources distributed over broad regions. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
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From page 245... ...
. As of 1999, 21 states and territories had proposed water quality criteria for nutrients, with significant differences in the nutrients addressed and whether the criteria are narracontinued
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From page 246... ...
that will serve as user manuals for assessing trophic state and developing region-specific nutrient criteria to control over-enrichment; · establishment of an EPA national nutrient team with regional nutrient coordinators to develop regional databases and to promote state and tribal involvement; · EPA development of nutrient water quality criteria guidance in the form of numerical regional target ranges that EPA expects states and tribes to use in implementing state management programs to reduce over-enrichment in surface waters (i.e., through
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From page 247... ...
The major focus of this strategy is the development of waterbodytype technical guidance and region-specific nutrient criteria by the year 2000. Once the guidance and criteria are established, EPA will assist states and tribes in applying numerical nutrient criteria to water quality standards by the end of 2003.
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From page 250... ...
Policies can generate uncertainty for private parties, and this uncertainty can be costly. For example, if taxes are used as a mechanism to push industry to make investments in pollution control, and industry makes investments in response to the tax, but the changes do not bring about the needed level of improvement and the tax is adjusted, the businesses may find that they have under- or over-invested.
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From page 251... ...
Subsidies and public investment in pollution control are based on this principle, as are water treatment strategies (for example, Safe Drinking Water Act) that raise water prices to consumers.
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From page 252... ...
Another way to think about management tools is whether they are voluntary or mandatory (Stranlund 1995; Segerson and Miceli 1998; Segerson and Li 1999~. Voluntary approaches include both informationand moral persuasion-based policies and subsidies that induce voluntary reductions in pollution.
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From page 253... ...
Each approach has its advantages and disadvantages. Voluntary Approaches Voluntary approaches to pollution control can be divided into three types (Carraro and Leveque 1999; Segerson and Li 1999~: (1)
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From page 254... ...
254 CLEAN COASTAL WATERS moral persuasion, managers can try to increase the public's environmental stewardship and recognition of the benefits of pollution abatement. Managers can also design financial incentives to encourage participations 3 Although managers can also increase participation by applying a regulatory threat, the response in this case is not really voluntary, since polluters are simply choosing the lesser of two evils.
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From page 255... ...
However, information, education, and cost sharing information are not necessarily successful in motivating landowners to change production practices (Napier and Johnson 1998~. A similar picture emerges from evidence in the industrial and commercial sectors.
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From page 256... ...
For these reasons, subsidies may be economically inefficient. Despite their inefficiencies, agricultural pollution control policy historically has been based on technical assistance and subsidies (Reichelderfer 1990; Ribaudo 1998~.
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From page 257... ...
1994; Parks and Schorr 1997~. Both the theoretical and the empirical literature on the use of voluntary approaches to pollution control reveal that these approaches can be effective, but that success is not guaranteed (Segerson and Li 1999~.
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From page 258... ...
perceive public relations benefits from participation in voluntary programs; or (4) fear the imposition of mandatory controls if voluntary approaches are not successful in achieving desired reductions in loadings or fossil fuel use.
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Although greater reliance on performance standards rather than technology standards should lead to lower costs for individual polluters, achieving an aggregate target level of water quality in a watershed
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The use of regulation is consistent with the polluter pays principle, to the extent that polluters pay for compliance with the regulations. However, as noted earlier, they do not pay for any damages that result despite that compliance.
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From page 261... ...
environmental quality just as they pay for the use of other inputs, such as labor and capital. Economic incentives thus put environmental inputs on a par with other inputs used in production.
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From page 262... ...
Because polluters have to pay both the costs of abatement and the tax, the total cost to polluters is higher under a tax policy than it would be under a regulation leading to the same level of total discharges. While this ensures that product prices reflect the full social cost of production, the total cost may create considerable hardship both for marginal firms and low-income consumers who would be hard hit by the associated price increases.
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From page 263... ...
While this trading program was targeted toward sulfur dioxide emissions, to the extent that it is coupled with overall reductions in fossil fuel consumption, it would also help promote reductions in NOx and the associated atmospheric deposition of nitrogen. Consideration has also been given to the use of trading programs for surface sources of water pollution, including trading between point source and nonpoint source.
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From page 264... ...
There have been several studies of the issue of pollution abatement trading between point and nonpoint sources. Letson (1992)
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From page 265... ...
Next, decision-makers at local or regional levels must outline clear management goals, set specific targets to achieve the overall goals, and develop a range of possible policy approaches or management tools that are suitable to the site and its problems. Targets can be based on various measures or indicators of nutrient over-enrichment or estuarine health and can take the form of general water quality criteria or more specific water quality standards.
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From page 266... ...
, regulations requiring adoption of those practices, mandatory soil testing, taxes on fertilizer use, and land use taxes. Alternatively, if a primary nutrient source is atmospheric deposition, local managers will need to work with regional or federal officials to develop strategies that reduce nutrient inputs to the estuary.
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From page 267... ...
One component of that clearinghouse should be the compilation of three types of information that would aid local managers in developing nutrient management strategies that are appropriate for their estuaries: · The first type of information would be a summary of and guide to research on the economic impacts of alternative source reduction methods, with particular emphasis on the role of site-specific characteristics in determining those impacts. This information would allow a local manager to determine which source reduction methods are likely to be more effective and cost-efficient, given the characteristics of the watershed and estuary of concern.
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From page 268... ...
268 CLEAN COASTAL WATERS both the results of scientific research on source control and policy design, and on what has or has not worked in practice in different settings, local managers can increase their understanding of the likely effectiveness of alternative policies and hence make informed decisions about which policy approaches are most appropriate for them.
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