Benefits of Protecting Rural Water Quality: An Empirical Analysis

Stephen R. Crutchfield, Peter Feather and Daniel Hellerstein

No 33949, Agricultural Economic Reports from United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service

Abstract: Concerns about the impact of farm production on the quality of the Nation's drinking and recreational water resources have risen over the past 10 years. Because point sources of pollution were controlled first, agricultural nonpoint sources have become the Nation's largest remaining single water-quality problem. Both public and private costs of policies that address the conflict between agricultural production and water quality are relevant, but measuring the off-farm benefits and costs of changing water quality is difficult. Many of the values placed on these resources are not measured in traditional ways through market prices. This report explores the use of nonmarket valuation methods to estimate the benefits of protecting or improving rural water quality from agricultural sources of pollution. Two case studies show how these valuation methods can be used to include water-quality benefits estimates in economic analyses of specific policies to prevent or reduce water pollution.

Keywords: Resource/Energy; Economics; and; Policy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 36
Date: 1995
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:uerser:33949

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.33949

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