Comparing Costs of Onsite Best Management Practices to Nutrient Credits for Stormwater Management: A Case Study in Virginia

Best management practices (BMPs) are widely used to mitigate impacts of increased impervious surfaces on stormwater runoff. However, there is limited detailed and up‐to‐date information available on the cost of designing, constructing, and maintaining BMPs over their lifetime. The objective of this...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of the American Water Resources Association 2017-02, Vol.53 (1), p.131-143
Main Authors: Nobles, Alicia L., Goodall, Jonathan L., Fitch, G. Michael
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Best management practices
Case studies
Construction costs
Cost analysis
Costs
Government agencies
Management
Mineral nutrients
nutrient credits
Nutrients
Onsite
Phosphorus
Public rights of way
Regulations
Runoff
Storm runoff
Stormwater
stormwater control measures costs
Stormwater management
Stormwater quality
Stormwater runoff
Transport
transportation projects
Water management
water resource economics
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Best management practices (BMPs) are widely used to mitigate impacts of increased impervious surfaces on stormwater runoff. However, there is limited detailed and up‐to‐date information available on the cost of designing, constructing, and maintaining BMPs over their lifetime. The objective of this study is to analyze BMPs recently constructed by the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) to quantify their total cost per pound of phosphorus removed annually. A motivating factor for the study is recent changes to regulatory guidelines in Virginia which allow for full or partial substitution of purchased nutrient credits in lieu of constructing onsite BMPs to achieve compliance with stormwater quality regulations. Results of the analysis of nine BMPs found their cost ranged from $20,100 to $74,900, in 2014 dollars, per pound ($44,313‐$165,126 per kg) of phosphorus removed. Based on these results and assuming current credit prices procured by VDOT, purchasing nutrient credits is a cost‐effective option for the agency, especially when factoring in the cost of additional right of way for the BMP. Based on this finding, we expect compliance with stormwater quality regulations through credit purchases to become more widely used in Virginia. Moving forward, we suggest more direct tracking of BMP costs to support comparisons between BMP costs across a range of types and conditions to credit purchases for meeting stormwater regulations.
ISSN:1093-474X
1752-1688
DOI:10.1111/1752-1688.12487