EFFICIENCY PROBLEMS FROM USER FEES IN MUNICIPAL WASTEWATER TREATMENT1

ABSTRACT: The Environmental Protection Agency administers a construction grant program to encourage abatement of wastewater pollution by sharing with municipalities the costs of wastewater treatment facilities. The enabling legislation (P.L. 92–500) specifies that EPA's cost share will be 75% of construction costs. It further requires municipalities to collect user fees from industrial users of the facilities to repay that part of the federal grant allocable to the treatment of industrial wastewater. The municipality must return half of the user fees collected to the U.S. Treasury; the municipality is allowed to retain the remaining half. Retention by municipalities of these user fees lowers their effective cost shares and results in the following consequences: (1) a bias for municipalities to select certain kinds of abatement techniques regardless of whether or not they are the least-cost techniques from the national perspective; (2) a bias for municipalities to select larger-than-optimal scales of abatement facilities; (3) a hidden federal subsidy to industry; and (4) grants that favor industrial communities. This article examines the legislative and regulatory requirements for user charges, derives the algebraic expressions for calculating the real federal, municipal, and industrial cost shares with user fees; computes municipal cost shares for selected values of the determinant factors; evaluates efficiency and other consequences of current user fee arrangements; and concludes that the efficiency distortions brought about by the impacts of user fees on cost sharing could be eliminated by requiring that all user fees collected from industry against the federal cost share be returned to the U.S. Treasury.     

水环境监测信息集成、共享与决策支持平台构建

以水环境监测数据可靠传输交换与集成、信息规范化处理分析、高效共享与决策支持为应用主线,对水环境监测信息集成、共享与决策支持平台的建设目标、总体架构、主要功能进行了研究,设计了平台的总体架构及主要功能,以实现涉水部门水环境信息的采集、传输、交换、存储、分析、发布、共享、展现等,为环境管理与决策人员、为公众、为各级(国家级流域级省级地市级县级)环境监测业务人员提供信息支撑。     

天津市环境监测元数据模式

元数据技术是目前环境监测信息管理的发展趋势 ,文章对基于元数据的天津市环境监测信息共享模式进行了探索与研究 ,提出了元数据系统功能及内容框架的解决方案。     

The Role of Abatement Costs in GHG Permit Allocations: A Global Stabilization Scenario Analysis

Our objective is to propose permit allocation schemes that lead to a fair distribution of the net abatement cost among regions in a global greenhouse gas (GHG) stabilization scenario. We use a detailed technology-based energy model, World-MARKAL, to determine efficient abatement decisions, and to calculate the regional gross abatement costs (before permit allocation and trading). The net abatement costs are then calculated and used for different permit allocation schemes.     

Perceived mastery climate,felt trust,and knowledge sharing

Interpersonal trust is associated with a range of adaptive outcomes, including knowledge sharing. However, to date, our knowledge of antecedents and consequences of employees feeling trusted by supervisors in organizations remains limited. On the basis of a multisource, multiwave field study among 956 employees from 5 Norwegian organizations, we examined the predictive roles of perceived mastery climate and employee felt trust for employees' knowledge sharing. Drawing on the achievement goal theory, we develop and test a model to demonstrate that when employees perceive a mastery climate, they are more likely to feel trusted by their supervisors at both the individual and group levels. Moreover, the relationship between employees' perceptions of a mastery climate and supervisor‐rated knowledge sharing is mediated by perceptions of being trusted by the supervisor. Theoretical contributions and practical implications of our findings are discussed.     

Bird conservation and the land sharing-sparing continuum in farmland-dominated landscapes of lowland England

Empirical evidence from many regions suggests that most species would be least negatively affected if human food demand were met through high-yield agricultural production and conservation of nonfarm ecosystems (land sparing), rather than through wildlife-friendly farming over a larger area (land sharing). However, repeated glaciation and a long history of agriculture may lead to different results in regions such as western Europe. We compared the consequences of land sparing and land sharing on breeding bird species in 2 lowland regions of England, The Fens, with 101 species, and Salisbury Plain, with 83. We derived density–yield responses for each species and then estimated regional population size under regional food production strategies, including land sharing and land sparing, a range of intermediate strategies, and a novel mixed strategy. In both regions, more species achieved maximum regional population size under land sparing than land sharing. In The Fens, the majority of birds were loser species (estimated to have smaller populations under all food production strategies than in the preagricultural baseline scenario), whereas in Salisbury Plain the majority were winners (smaller populations in the preagricultural baseline scenario). Loser species overwhelmingly achieved maximum regional population size under land sparing, whereas winner species achieved maximum regional population size under either land sharing or an intermediate strategy, highlighting the importance of defining which groups of species are the target of conservation. A novel 3-compartment strategy (combining high-yield farming, natural habitat, and low-yield farming) often performed better than either land sharing or land sparing. Our results support intermediate or 3-compartment land-sparing strategies to maximize bird populations across lowland agricultural landscapes. To deliver conservation outcomes, any shift toward land sparing must, however, ensure yield increases are sustainable in the long term, do not entail increased negative effects on surrounding areas, and are linked to allocation of land for nature.     

Reciprocal altruism and food sharing decisions among Hiwi and Ache hunter–gatherers

The common occurrence of food transfers within human hunter–gatherer and forager–horticulturalist groups presents exciting test cases for evolutionary models of altruism. While kin biases in sharing are consistent with nepotism based on kin selection, there is much debate over the extent to which reciprocal altruism and tolerated scrounging provide useful explanations of observed behavior. This paper presents a model of optimal sharing breadth and depth, based on a general non-tit-for-tat form of risk-reduction based reciprocal altruism, and tests a series of predictions using data from Hiwi and Ache foragers. I show that large, high variance food items are shared more widely than small, easily acquired food items. Giving is conditional upon receiving in pairwise interactions and this correlation is usually stronger when the exchange of value rather than quantities is considered. Larger families and low producing families receive more and give less, consistent with the notion that marginal value may be a more salient currency than quantity.

生态环境监测服务平台设计——以宁波市为例

建成“一网-二库-二系统”的生态环境监测服务平台,为宁波市环境监测部门、政府管理部门、科研机构、社会公众等提供数据支持服务。介绍了该平台的总体架构、应用模式,以及实现、部署与应用。     

航空安全信息管理的问题与对策

航空安全信息是民航实施安全风险控制和事故预防的基础,对航空安全水平的提高有重要的作用。笔者总结了民航安全信息的基本构成和来源,及其在安全风险识别、管理决策方面的功用;结合中国民航安全管理状况及行业发展趋势,分析了当前中国民航安全信息管理方面存在的主要问题,指出当前民航安全信息存在着数量不足、质量不高、交流共享困难、分析利用不充分等问题,不利于基于数据驱动的安全管理机制的建立和向规章符合性基础上的绩效管理的转变。针对安全信息管理的这些问题,文章建议民航局通过改善安全信息管理政策、建立航空企业安全信息共享平台、建立国家航空安全信息分析中心、开发安全信息分析利用工具等措施来改善安全信息的收集、分析利用和共享,为提高行业安全管理水平服务。     

大气环境科学综合数据采集共享平台建设及应用研究

为实现大气重污染成因与治理攻关项目数据的统一管理和数据共享,基于美国电子政务共享框架（Federal Enterprise Architecture Framework,FEA）方法论和数据中台思想,采用JAVA平台和SOA框架,以大气重污染成因与治理攻关项目科研数据为主,整合全社会大气科学数据资源,面向京津冀、汾渭平原大气污染成因与治理改善分析的核心业务需求,建设集多源异构数据采集、治理、共享、分析、发布于一体的大气环境科学数据采集与共享平台;建立完善的线上数据治理流程,采用多种算法实现大气业务数据集的实时质控;采用分级、分权限的数据共享机制和共享接口动态编辑技术,建立一站式数据枢纽.结果表明:①建立大气科学数据规范分类体系,提供从原始数据、二次数据产品、大气攻关信息发布等多种类型的数据共享服务.②建立海量多源异构综合数据集,包括空气质量、组分、污染源、气象、健康等11类,数据总量4.3 TB,包括7.5亿条数据和66万个文件.③开发交互式GIS服务和线上评估分析工具,实现环境空气质量评估、气象影响分析、组分变化、污染源统计四类主题数据服务.④向大气重污染成因与治理攻关项目各课题组、七省（市）提供多种形式共享,开放104个数据接口,实现21亿条数据、2万份文件、15个专题共享,有力地支撑了大气重污染成因与治理攻关项目的各项研究.