A Retrospective Assessment of the Costs of the Clean Water Act:1972 to 1997

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Keywords

Subject:

3. Cost and Economic Impacts Analysis
3.Costs and Economic Impact Analysis - Specific Sectors and Pollutants

Environmental Media/Problems covered:

b. Water
b. Water - Surface

Authors:	Van Houtven, George L. Brunnermeier, Smita B. Buckley, Mark C.
EPA Project Officer/ Manager:	Podar, Mahesh
Geographic Area:	United States
Study Purpose:	Empirical Application, Data Development

Inventory Record #: EE-0434

Participating Organizations

Report Details

Summary

This study assesses the costs imposed on society by the Clean Water Act in the period 1972-1997. The report points ouft that some of the costs that are currently being incurred to reduce water pollution would have existed even without the CWA. Although the CWA established a discharge permit system and provided significant federal financial assistance for constructing public treatment facilities, significant public and private investments in water pollution control existed prior to 1972. These expenditures would most likely have continued to grow after 1972 even if the CWA had not been enacted. Therefore, the approach taken in this study is to, not only estimate recent nationwide costs of water pollution abatement (WPA), but also to simulate and deduct from these estimates the WPA costs that would have been incurred without the CWA.

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File Description	File Size (KB)	File Type
Entire report	615	Acrobat

Date Linked: 10/20/2000

A Retrospective Assessment of the Costs of the Clean Water Act:1972 to 1997

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