water use and pollution

Question 1

what is surface water?

Answer 1

A renewable resource consisting ofrivers, lakes and reservoirs

Question 2

what is groundwater?

Answer 2

Collects underground in aquifers. Some aquifers are non-recharging, and thus nonrenewable resources.

Question 3

what is the potential for water scarcity?

Answer 3

there is an increase in demand for water due to growing population, groundwater levels are declining in many areas and the water quality is also a growing pobelm with over 600 million people lacking access to clean water in 2006 study by UNDP. there is an imbalance between water withdrawels per capita and renewable freshwater resources per capita

Question 4

what is green water?

Answer 4

Green water is that fraction of rainfall that infiltrates into the soil and is available to plants. It includes soil water holding capacity and the continual replenishment of reserves by rainfall.

Question 5

what is blue water?

Answer 5

Blue water is the water in our surface and groundwater reservoirs.

Question 6

what is grey water?

Answer 6

Grey water is the water that becomes polluted during production, say in agriculture because of the leaching of nutrients and pesticides

Question 7

what is virtual water?

Answer 7

It is the volume of freshwater used to produce the product, measured at the place where the product was actually produced.

Question 8

why is virtual water important internationally?

Answer 8

For water-scarce countries (e.g., Morocco ), it would be attractive to achieve water security by importing water-intensive products (grain and seed oil)
Water-rich countries can profit from their abundance of water resources by producing water-intensive products for export.

Question 9

what does an efficent allocation of scarce surface water depend on?

Answer 9

An efficient allocation of a renewable resource involves a contemporaneous opportunity cost or the cost imposed on an alternative user
Efficiency in the presence of competing uses implies that marginal net benefit should be equalized across all uses

Question 10

what does the efficient allocation of the scarce ground water depend on?

Answer 10

For groundwater, there is a marginal user cost reflecting the inter-temporal opportunity cost.
If withdrawals exceed recharge, the resource is (a)either depleted over time, or (b) use is stopped when marginal extraction cost exceeds marginal benefits.

Question 11

what are sources of inefficiency in the current alloaction system of water?

Answer 11

Restrictions on Transfers, municipal and industrial water pricing, federal reclamation projects and agricultural water pricing

Question 12

how do restriction on transfers a source of inefficiency?

Answer 12

Property rights and transferability will lead to efficient allocation₋ “use-it-or-lose-it” exacerbates inefficiency, no incentive to conserve₋ The ‘preferential-use doctrine’ gives certain users priority during shortage, regardless of the marginal net benefit produced by use

Question 13

how does munuicipal and industrial water pricing be a source of inefficiency?

Answer 13

Subsidized water leads to inefficiencies and waste₋
Efficient pricing requires price to equal marginal cost of supply (inclusive of extraction, treatment to standard, delivery to point of use)

Question 14

how does federal reclamation projects and agricultural water pricing be a source of ineffiency?

Answer 14

Governments subsidize water projects even when they fail CBA to encourage economic development and employment

Question 15

what are the potential remedies for these sources of inefficiency?

Answer 15

relaxing “use it or lose it” restrictions
water markets
water pricing

Question 16

how will relaxing use it or lose it restrictions remedy inefficency?

Answer 16

Encourages conservation, and allow water to move to higher valued uses by allowing owners to sell conserved water

Question 17

how do water markets remedy inefficiency?

Answer 17

Increasingly utilized to correct inefficiencies and remove scarcity in the short or long-term basis

Question 18

what are examples of water markets?

Answer 18

one example is the colarado river compact. the colarado river is a major water source for several western states including Arizona, California, nevada, new mexico, utah, and wyoming. the colarado river compact is a legal agreement that aloows for water to be transferred from areas that have a surplus to areas that are in need

Question 19

how is water pricing a remedy for inefficiency?

Answer 19

Elimination of subsidies would reduce inefficiencies₋
Adequate charge rate structures encourage conservation

Question 20

what is point source pollution?

Answer 20

discharged into surface water at a specific location through a drainage pipe or ditch. the primary sources are industries and municipalities

Question 21

what are nonpoint source pollution?

Answer 21

runoff from a variety of sources (agricultural / urban runoff). it is more difficult to control due to unpredictability and uncertainty associated with the exact source

Question 22

what are the two types of water pollutants?

Answer 22

1- fund pollutants
2- stock pollutants

Question 23

what are fund pollutants?

Answer 23

Fund pollutants are those that can be assimilated by the environment. an example is excess plant nutrients

Question 24

what are stock pollutants?

Answer 24

Stock pollutants are those for which the environment has no absorptive capacity. an example of these are persistent pollutant which break down slowly and can travel long distances in water such as heavy metals

Question 25

what are the control instruments for water pollution control?

Answer 25

Regulation & standards (US approach with CWA)
Zero-discharge rules
EU approach WFD 2000

Question 26

when is a firm cost effective?

Answer 26

when the marginal abatement cost is equalised across all the categories of polluters and across all members of each categoru

Question 27

what was the clean water act?

Answer 27

an act that tried to eliminate the discharge of pollutants by 1985. it aimed to provide protection and propagation for fish, shellfish, wildlife, recreation in and on water by june 1st 1983

Question 28

what was the 1972 amendments to the clean water act for

Answer 28

to meet the effluent standard

Question 29

what was the 1977 amendments to the clean water act for ?

Answer 29

it distinguished between conventional and toxic pollutants

Question 30

what was the reauthorisation of the clean water act in 1987 for ?

Answer 30

it provided funding for a program to help states control runoff but the states held responsibility for non point source pollution control

Question 31

what is the primary source of ocean pollution?

Answer 31

the primary source of ocean pollution is oil spills

Question 32

what is the trend of oil spills

Answer 32

oil spills have decreaed over the years

Question 33

what level will the vessel owners choose the level of precuation?

Answer 33

they will equate the marginal cost of additional precuation with the marginal expected penalty so they minimise the total expected costs

Question 34

what is the marginal reduction in the expected penalty a function off?

Answer 34

the likihood of a spill
the maginitude of a financial obligation it would trigger

Question 35

what are the issues of switching from ambient standards to a zero discharge goal?

Answer 35

the feasibility of meeting such a goal is low therefore enforcement is a problem. it also doesnt distinguish among pollutant types

Question 36

what are the issues with national effluent standards?

Answer 36

there will be enforcement problems as for cost effectiveness it will require individual standards however the EPA has general standards. there will also be allocating control responsibity. uniform standards do not approximate the least cost allocation

Question 37

the will the optimal tax have to be?

Answer 37

an optimal tax will require a unique tax rate for each firm and water body