The Public Benefits Of Cleaned Water

This Clean Water Action Plan, issued by the EPA & the Ag. Dept., provides a blueprint for restoring & protecting the nation's precious water resources. A key element in the Plan is a new cooperative approach to watershed protection in which state, tribal, Fed., & local governments, & the public first identify the watersheds with the most critical water quality problems & then work together to focus resources & implement effective strategies to solve those problems. Includes new initiatives to reduce public health threats, improve the stewardship of natural resources, strengthen polluted runoff controls, & make water quality information more accessible.

Clean water should be a basic human right. However, there are still 785 million people in the world today who are living without access to safe water. Each year, nearly 1 million people die from water-related illnesses. Your readers will examine the global water crisis. They will learn how the water crisis evolved and about its impact on people, the environment, and the future of our planet. Through studying emerging efforts to solve this important issue and observing real-life examples of young activists, readers will be inspired to become the environmental advocates that Earth needs to ensure a healthy future for all.

Until recently, there has been general agreement that improvement and preservation of water quality, though costly, provided economic and social benefits that outweighed the expense. Now, however, some observers are beginning to question whether the costs of the 1972 Water Pollution Control Act may actually exceed those benefits. This book provides answers to some of the questions that have been raised. The authors give measures of several important nonmarket benefits of improved water quality in Colorado's South Platte River Basin and empirically test and confirm the Weisbrod and Krutilla proposals that the general public may be willing to pay for preservation of environmental amenities and that option value and other preservation values must be added to recreation-use values to give an accurate picture of the social benefits of environmental preservation and restoration. Their findings include the fact that even those who do not expect to use the river basin for recreation are willing to pay for the maintenance of a natural ecosystem and to bequest clean water to future generations. The authors also arrive at average amounts households are willing to pay for improved water quality to enhance enjoyment of water-based recreation activities. They suggest that, without such information, it is highly unlikely that sufficient resources will be allocated for the preservation of unique environments and for the improvement of those being degraded.

Originally published in 1978, this volume addresses the scientific, economic, and administrative aspects of the public policy problem raised by the United States’ Safe Drinking Water Act of 1974. In this collection of papers, the authors examine the various problems presented by drinking public water in the United States, the United Kingdom, and throughout Europe. This is an ideal title for students interested in environmental studies and public policy reform.