Linking Water Quality to Drinking Water Treatment Costs Using Time Series Analysis: Examining the Effect of a Treatment Plant Upgrade in Ohio.

We estimate a cost function for a water treatment plant in Ohio to assess the avoided-treatment costs resulting from improved source water quality. Regulations and source water concerns motivated the treatment plant to upgrade its treatment process by adding a granular activated carbon building in 2012. The cost function uses daily observations from 2013 to 2016; this allows us to compare the results to a cost function estimated for 2007-2011 for the same plant. Both models focus on understanding the relationship between treatment costs per 1,000 gallons (per 3.79 m3) of produced drinking water and predictor variables such as turbidity, pH, total organic carbon, deviations from target pool elevation, final production, and seasonal variables. Different from the 2007-2011 model, the 2013-2016 model includes a harmful algal bloom toxin variable. We find that the new treatment process leads to a different cost model than the one that covers 2007-2011. Both total organic carbon and algal toxin are important drivers for the 2013-2016 treatment costs. This reflects a significant increase in cyanobacteria cell densities capable of producing toxins in the source water between time periods. The 2013-2016 model also reveals that positive and negative shocks to treatment costs affect volatility, the changes in the variance of costs through time, differently. Positive shocks, or increased costs, lead to higher volatility compared to negative shocks, or decreased costs, of similar magnitude. After quantifying the changes in treatment costs due to changes in source water quality, we discuss how the study results inform policy-relevant decisions.

The Effects of Source Water Quality on Drinking Water Treatment Costs: A Review and Synthesis of Empirical Literature.

Watershed protection, and associated in situ water quality improvements, has received considerable attention as a means for mitigating health risks and avoiding expenditures at drinking water treatment plants (DWTPs). This study reviews the literature linking source water quality to DWTP expenditures. For each study, we report information on the modeling approach, data structure, definition of treatment costs and water quality, and statistical methods. We then extract elasticities indicating the percentage change in drinking water treatment costs resulting from a 1% change in water quality. Forty-six elasticities are obtained for various water quality parameters, such as turbidity, total organic carbon (TOC), nitrogen, sediment loading, and phosphorus loading. An additional 29 elasticities are obtained for land use classification (e.g., forest, agricultural, urban), which often proxy source water quality. Findings indicate relatively large ranges in the estimated elasticities of most parameters and land use classifications. However, average elasticities are smaller and ranges typically narrower for studies that incorporated control variables consistent with economic theory in their models. We discuss the implications of these findings for a DWTP's incentive to engage in source water protection and highlight gaps in the literature.

Low-flow appliances and household water demand: an evaluation of demand-side management policy in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Residential rebate programs for low-flow water devices have become increasingly popular as a means of reducing urban water demand. Although program specifics vary, low-flow rebates are available in most U.S. metropolitan areas, as well as in many smaller municipalities. Despite their popularity, few statistical analyses have been conducted regarding the effects of low-flow rebates on household water use. In this paper, we consider the effects of rebates from the Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority (ABCWUA). Using panel regression techniques with a database of rebate recipients, we estimate the marginal effects of various low-flow devices on household water demand. Results indicate a negative correlation between household water use and the presence of most low-flow devices, after controlling for water price and weather conditions. Low-flow toilets have the greatest impact on water use, while low-flow washing machines, dishwashers, showerheads, and xeriscape have smaller but significant effects. In contrast, air conditioning systems, hot water recirculators, and rain barrels have no significant impact on water use. We also test for possible rebound effects (i.e. whether low-flow appliances become less-effective over time due to poor rates of retention or behavioral changes) and compare the cost effectiveness of each rebate using levelised-costs. We find no evidence of rebound effects and substantial variation in levelised-costs, with low-flow showerheads being the most cost-effective device under the current ABCWUA rebate program. The latter result suggests that water providers can improve the efficiency of rebate programs by targeting the most cost-effective devices.

The Effects of Agricultural and Urban Land Use on Drinking Water Treatment Costs: An Analysis of United States Community Water Systems.

For community water providers, safeguarding source waters from contamination offers an additional barrier of protection and a potential means of avoiding in-plant treatment costs. Whether source water protection efforts are cost-effective relative to in-plant treatment requires hydrologic, geologic, and climatologic knowledge of source watersheds, as well as an understanding of how changes in source water quality affect treatment costs. Quantitative evidence on the latter relationship is limited. This study estimates separate hedonic cost functions for water systems that primarily use surface water sources and those that primarily use groundwater sources using a database of United States (US) Community Water Systems. Cost functions relate annual variable treatment cost to production, factor input prices, capital stock, and source water quality, as proxied by land use within various ex-ante defined contributing areas (i.e., surrounding land areas affecting source water quality). For surface water systems, a 1% increase in urban land relative to forestland is correlated with a 0.13% increase in annual variable treatment costs. In this analysis, the relationship between costs and agricultural land is not statistically significant. Conversely, for groundwater systems, a 1% increase in agricultural land relative to forestland is correlated with a 0.24% increase in costs, whereas in this analysis the relationship between costs and urban land is not statistically significant. The cost-effectiveness of forestland preservation, based on sample means, varies considerably with the size of the contributing area, with no clear indication as to whether preservation is more likely to be cost-effective for surface water or groundwater systems.

Maternal health care amid political unrest: the effect of armed conflict on antenatal care utilization in Nepal.

Armed conflicts, which primarily occur in low- and middle-income countries, have profound consequences for the health of affected populations, among them a decrease in the utilization of maternal health care services. The quantitative relationship between armed conflict and maternal health care utilization has received limited attention in the public health literature. We evaluate this relationship for a particular type of health care service, antenatal care, in Nepal. Using count regression techniques, household survey data and sub-national conflict data, we find a negative correlation between the number of antenatal care visits and incidents of conflict-related violence within a respondent's village development committee. Specifically, we find that under high-intensity conflict conditions women receive between 0.3 and 1.5 fewer antenatal care check-ups. These findings imply that maternal health care utilization is partially determined by characteristics of the social environment (e.g. political instability) and suggest health care providers need to revise maternal health strategies in conflict-affected areas. Strategies may include decentralization of services, maintaining neutrality among factions, strengthening community-based health services and developing mobile clinics.