RATES,RIGHTS, AND REGIONAL PLANNING IN THE METROPOLITAN WATER DISTRICT OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA1

ABSTRACT: The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California has for more than 70 years shaped the development of an immense urban region. The district's current strategic planning process therefore could have substantial effects on regional water planning and management. The rate restructuring phase of the planning process has produced a multiple component, cost of service based framework. This paper describes that framework as well as some criticisms that have been directed toward it. The rate restructuring was shaped, and for a while stalled, by old disputes among member agencies over rights to water supplied by Metropolitan. That controversy has diverted attention from the resource management implications of the rate structure. This paper presents an alternative future focused approach to regional integrated water resource planning for Southern California based on projections of current trends and anticipation of future events. This discussion raises the question of how regional integrated water resources planning of this sort may proceed, and what role Metropolitan will play in that process.     

ESTIMATING THE BENEFITS OF PHOSPHORUS POLLUTION REDUCTIONS: AN APPLICATION IN THE MINNESOTA RIVER1

ABSTRACT: In order to make economically efficient decisions about water quality improvements, data on both the costs and benefits of these improvements is needed. However, there has been little research on the benefits of reducing phosphorus pollution which implies that policy decisions are not able to make the comparison of costs and benefits that is essential for economic efficiency. This research attempts to ameliorate this situation by providing an estimate of the benefits of a 40 percent reduction in phosphorus pollution in the Minnesota River. A 1997 mail survey gathered information on Minnesota residents'use of a recreational site on the Minnesota River, the Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge, and their willingness to pay for phosphorus reductions in the Minnesota River. The random effects probit model used in this research to investigate household willingness to pay for phosphorus pollution reductions in the Minnesota River incorporates recent innovations in nonmarket valuation methodology by using both revealed and stated preference data. This model estimated annual household willingness to pay for phosphorus reductions in the Minnesota River at $140. These results may be used in combination with cost estimates to determine the economic efficiency of phosphorus clean up.     

INVOLVING WATERSHED STAKEHOLDERS: AN ISSUE ATTRIBUTE APPROACH TO DETERMINE WILLINGNESS AND NEED1

ABSTRACT: The development of effective solutions for addressing nonpoint source pollution on a watershed basis often involves watershed stakeholders. However, success in engaging stakeholders in collaborative decision making processes varies, as watershed managers are faced with the challenges inherent to finding the right process for the decisions needed and in successfully engaging stakeholders in that process. Two characteristics that may provide guidance for determining the appropriateness of applying a collaborative process to a watershed problem are the need to collaborate and the willingness of stakeholders to engage in a collaborative decision making process. By examining seven attributes of the issues confronted by stakeholders in a collaborative process, the consequences of these attributes on the need for collaboration and stakeholders' willingness to engage can be estimated. The issue attributes include: level of uncertainty, balance of information, risk, time horizon of effects, urgency of decision, distribution of effects, and clarity of problem. The issue attribute model was applied to two collaborative decision making processes conducted by the same watershed stakeholder group in a North Carolina coastal watershed. Need and willingness to engage did not coincide for either issue; that is, stakeholders were more willing to engage on the issue that required less need for their involvement.     

Environmental Racism in the Sunbelt? A Cross-Cultural Analysis

/ Sociologist Robert Bullard challenged the prevailing paradigm of environmentalism as a consensual issue in the United States by developing the concept of environmental racism. As he claims, ethnic minorities have been put "at greater environmental risk" than has the Caucasian majority in most areas of the country. This study of the Tucson metropolitan area examines this proposition by utilizing data from several sources: interviews with elected officials and other opinion leaders, GIS-generated socioeconomic data, articles in the press, and a literature review. We conclude that Bullard's concept has validity for this metropolitan area but that there also exist widely divergent differences of opinion on the subject. We explain why this is so. We further conclude that the allegation of "environmental racism" made by the Hispanic community in the 1980s and 1990s has had a transformative effect on local politics.KEY WORDS: Environment; Racism; Tucson; Garbage dumps; County government; Pollution; Equity; Justice     

新疆博尔塔拉蒙古族自治州水资源开发利用中的若干问题探讨

本文从宏观角度对博州水资源的开发利用作了详细的研究。通过分析博州现行的水资源利用状况,找出以往开发利用中存在的问题及原因,运用结构分析方法,借助系统动力学(SD)建模手段,构造了博州水资源系统的宏观调控结构分析模型。通过观察和比较模型的输出结果,最后提出以从农业生产中挖潜节水为主攻方向,来解决博州水资源开发利用中现存的各种问题和作为今后制定各种水资源政策的参考。本研究将区域水资源开发利用问题归结为系统宏观控制问题,并在方法上作了一些探索。     

论强化环境执法的监督机制

我国环境执法的软弱同一直没有根本改变。对通过环境执法的监督来强化环境执法工作的途径进行探讨，如环境执法，执法检查，行政监察，司法监督、内部监督，社会监督。     

"罐中罐"技术在炼油废水处理中的工业应用

介绍了具有复合功能的水力旋液型均质、除油、沉淀、调节罐(WS-Ⅱ型、简称“罐中罐”)技术和设备的开发和工业应用的情况,通过生产实践和现场标定,显现了该设备具有较高的除油能力和缓冲调节能力。其可靠的收油、排泥设施使得运行稳定。基本上解决了现存污水调节罐的问题。设计思想独特新颖,操作简便可靠,值得推广和应用。     

旱作小麦─玉米垅种沟盖地膜带田集水调水与增产效应研究

旱作垅种（小麦）沟盖（玉米）地膜带田优于目前推广的沟种（小麦）垅盖（玉米）带田种植形式。在作物共生期相互调水作用更趋合理，平衡了小麦、玉米不同生育阶段对水分的供需矛盾，作物的生态条件更加适宜，群体结构更加协调，提高了作物的生产量，前者比后者增产９０％～１２５％。     

Environmental Market Failures: Are There Any Local Market-Based Corrective Mechanisms for Global Problems?

The paper reviews various policy tools that have been discussed in the literature, including legal, administrative and fiscal (tax) schemes, as well as tradeable emission permits, and concludes that none of them are really suitable for dealing with global problems. An alternative is suggested, namely the use of tradeable individual consumption quotas for traded commodities at the national level, to be extended later to the global level by trading quotas among nations (assuming agreement can be reached on the basis for determining quotas). This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

发挥非政府组织作用推进防震减灾工作

防震减灾工作是一项社会性的系统工程；非政府组织在社会管理和服务中发挥着重要的参与作用。非政府组织参与防震减灾工作，将使防震减灾工作受到事半功倍的效果。本文分析了非政府组织在防震减灾领域的作用，根据我国政府组织发展的实践，提出了在防震减灾管理工作发挥非政府组织作用的思路。