NAFTA and member country strategies for maritime trade and marine invasive species

Maritime shipping has two vectors of spreading marine invasive species: ballast water inside the ship and biofouling on the hulls outside the ship. While some attention has focused on ballast water, virtually none is focused on biofouling. This paper offers a quantitative analysis of economic incentives for shippers and regulating ports to address both pollution vectors. The strategies to address the vectors are induced by incentive mechanisms involving liability, subsidies and taxes. Results show these offer ample incentives in order to truly foster abatement of both vectors. Data from North America's Pacific coast is included in the analysis.     

Balancing environmental and industry sustainability: A case study of the US gold mining industry

Mandatory insurance requirements and/or mitigation fees (royalties) for mining companies may help reduce environmental risk exposure for the federal government. Mining is examined since the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Toxic Release Inventory reveals that this sector produces more hazardous waste than any other industrial sector. Although uncommon, environmental expense can exceed hundreds of millions of dollars per development. Of particular concern is the potential for mines to become unfunded Superfund sites. Monte Carlo simulation of risk exposure is used to establish a plausible range of unfunded federal liabilities associated with cyanide-leach gold mining. A model is developed to assess these costs and their impact on both the federal budget and corporate profitability (i.e., industry sustainability), particularly if such costs are borne by offending firms.     

The Relative Importance of Landscape Amenity and Health Impacts in the Wind Farm Debate in Australia

In recent years, Australia has experienced public debate around the growth in wind farms as part of government and community strategies to move from fossil fuels to renewable energy. Many of the arguments put forward by opponents and supporters are similar to those that have been evident in North America and Western Europe, including possible environmental impacts on wildlife, noise levels and, perhaps most prominently adverse changes in ‘landscape amenity’. A concern of increasing prominence is that of adverse human health impacts from proximity to operating turbines. Using analysis of submissions to public inquiries and a small number of detailed interviews, we consider the increased focus in Australia on the health impacts of wind farms. We note that health impacts, as elsewhere in the world, are often part of a suite of objections to wind farm developments but conclude that for some people near such developments, these are the main concern and not a cover or proxy for other concerns, such as changes in landscape amenity and aesthetics.     

MODELING THE IMPACTS OF WATER LEVEL CHANGES ON A GREAT LAKES COMMUNITY1

ABSTRACT: Recent research that couples climate change scenarios based on general circulation models (GCM) with Great Lakes hydrologic models has indicated that average water levels are projected to decline in the future. This paper outlines a methodology to assess the potential impact of declining water levels on Great Lakes waterfront communities, using the Lake Huron shoreline at Goderich, Ontario, as an example. The methodology utilizes a geographic information system (GIS) to combine topographic and bathymetric datasets. A digital elevation surface is used to model projected shoreline change for 2050 using water level scenarios. An arbitrary scenario, based on a 1 m decline from February 2001 lake levels, is also modeled. By creating a series of shoreline scenarios, a range of impact and cost scenarios are generated for the Goderich Harbor and adjacent marinas. Additional harbor and marina dredging could cost as much as CDN $7.6 million. Lake freighters may experience a 30 percent loss in vessel capacity. The methodology is used to provide initial estimates of the potential impacts of climate change that can be readily updated as more robust climate change scenarios become available and is adaptable for use in other Great Lakes coastal communities.     

A spatial model approach for assessing windbreak growth and carbon stocks

Agroforestry, the deliberate integration of trees into agricultural operations, sequesters carbon (C) while providing valuable services on agricultural lands. However, methods to quantify present and projected C stocks in these open-grown woody systems are limited. As an initial step to address C accounting in agroforestry systems, a spatial Markov random field model for predicting the natural logarithm (log) of the mean aboveground volume of green ash ( Marsh.) within a shelterbelt, referred to as the log of aboveground volume, was developed using data from an earlier study and web-available soil and climate information. Windbreak characteristics, site, and climate variables were used to model the large-scale trend of the log of aboveground volume. The residuals from this initial model were correlated among sites up to 24 km from a point of interest. Therefore, a spatial dependence parameter was used to incorporate information from sites within 24 km into the prediction of the log of the aboveground volume. Age is an important windbreak characteristic in the model. Thus, the log of aboveground volume can be predicted for a given windbreak age and for values of other explanatory variables associated with a site of interest. Such predictions can be exponentiated to obtain predictions of aboveground volume for windbreaks without repeated inventory. With the capability of quantifying uncertainty, the model has the potential for large regional planning efforts and C stock assessments for many deciduous tree species used in windbreaks and riparian buffers once it is calibrated.     

Estimating the economic burden from illnesses associated with recreational coastal water pollution--a case study in Orange County, California

A cost-of-illness framework was applied to health and income data to quantify the health burden from illnesses associated with exposure to polluted recreational marine waters. Using data on illness severity due to exposure to polluted coastal water and estimates of mean annual salaries and medical costs (adjusted to 2001 values) for residents of Orange County, California, we estimated that the economic burden per gastrointestinal illness (GI) amounts to 36.58 dollars, the burden per acute respiratory disease is 76.76 dollars, the burden per ear ailment is 37.86 dollars, and the burden per eye ailment is 27.31 dollars. These costs can become a substantial public health burden when millions of exposures per year to polluted coastal waters result in hundreds of thousands of illnesses. For example, exposures to polluted waters at Orange County's Newport and Huntington Beaches were estimated to generate an average of 36,778 GI episodes per year. At this GI illness rate, one can also expect that approximately 38,000 more illness episodes occurred per year of other types, including respiratory, eye, and ear infections. The combination of excess illnesses associated with coastal water pollution resulted in a cumulative public health burden of 3.3 million dollars per year for these two beaches. This paper introduces a public health cost variable that can be applied in cost-benefit analyses when evaluating pollution abatement strategies.