Measuring the Benefits of Improvements in Water Quality: The Chesapeake Bay

Federal, state, and local government agencies have joined forces in the ambitious and expensive task of improving the water quality of the Chesapeake Bay. Clean-up efforts will be devoted to three major problems: nutrient over enrichment, toxic substances, and the decline of submerged aquatic vegeta...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Marine resource economics 1989-01, Vol.6 (1), p.1-18
Main Authors: BOCKSTAEL, N. E., McCONNELL, K. E., STRAND, I. E.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Beaches
Boating
Boats
Coefficients
Estimation methods
Income taxes
Marine
Nitrogen
Parametric models
Sport fishing
Water quality
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Summary:Federal, state, and local government agencies have joined forces in the ambitious and expensive task of improving the water quality of the Chesapeake Bay. Clean-up efforts will be devoted to three major problems: nutrient over enrichment, toxic substances, and the decline of submerged aquatic vegetation. Although the beneficiaries are ultimately human, criteria for judging the Bay's water quality have been primarily biological and physical. This paper addresses the question of the human values from the Bay. How do people use the Bay and how much are they willing to pay for the changes in water quality that improve their use? With a variety of methods and data sources, we estimate the annual aggregate willingness to pay for a moderate improvement in the Chesapeake Bay's water quality to be in the range of $10 to $100 million in 1984 dollars.
ISSN:0738-1360
2334-5985
DOI:10.1086/mre.6.1.42628999