THE MILWAUKEE POLLUTION CASE - IMPLICATIONS FOR WATER RESOURCES PLANNING1

ABSTRACT: The Illinois v. Milwaukee Federal District Court decision is the most far reaching application yet of the federal common law of nuisance to interstate water pollution conflicts. Although a Federal Appelate Court recently rescinded part of the district court decision, Milwaukee must still upgrade its metropolitan sewage system to a level beyond that required by federal and state regulations. The improvements must be completed with or without federal aid. The case points out the apparent inability of the Clean Water Act, the most comprehensive federal legislation affecting the nation's water quality, to deal with certain interstate water quality conflicts. The Milwaukee decision could set a precedent for similar settlements elsewhere which may in turn affect the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's water quality clean up program. A more integrated, ecosystem conscious approach to management of shared water resources (e.g., the Great Lakes) would help reduce the need for court decisions like Illinois v. Milwaukee.     

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.     

SOCIAL WELL-BEING AND WATER RESOURCES PLANNING1

ABSTRACT: For many years, Federal water resources projects have been subjected to benefit-cost analysis to establish their economic feasibility. Several years ago social well-being was added as a consideration. This paper discusses the state-of-the-art in analyzing and evaluating aspects of social well-being. It stresses current short-falls and advocates a direction for further efforts.     

PUBLIC HEALTH ASPECT OF TROPICAL WATER RESOURCES DEVELOPMENT1

ABSTRACT. The Governments of Nigeria have planned to build 395 dams in the next five years. Such water resources development may increase the incidence of Schistosomiasis, Malaria, Onchocerciasis, and Trypanosomiasis. Adequate measures should be taken to minimize adverse effects of the projects on the public health.     

A NONLINEAR MULTILEVEL MODEL FOR REGIONAL WATER RESOURCES PLANNING1

ABSTRACT: A nonlinear multilevel transportation model is developed to study large-scale allocations in a water resources system. The model uses a modified transportation matrix formulated with nonlinear cost functions as the basic subregional model and the goal coordination method for multilevel decomposition and optimization of the overall regional system. The model is applied to projected water requirements for Salt Lake County in 1985. Sources of water supply - surface water, ground water, import water, and reuse of reclaimed wastewater on a restricted basis - are available to satisfy water requirements for municipal, industrial, and agricultural sectors in four subregions. The conjugate gradient projection method is used to optimize the first level subregional models having cost functions of the form of C = aX^b, and the second level problem is solved using the conjugate gradient method.     

重庆市耕地资源可持续利用研究

分析了重庆市耕地资源利用现状、利用中存在的主要问题及其产生的原因 ,提出了重庆市耕地资源可持续利用的相应对策。     

贵州珍稀濒危药用植物与可持续开发利用

通过调查贵州珍稀濒危药用植物的种类、分布、现状及用途，为该省珍稀濒危药用植物的合理开发利用提供依据。采用实地调查、资料查阅、市场调研，然后作出评估与评价。结果表明，贵州珍稀濒危药用植物种类较多，具有良好的开发应用前景。贵州珍稀濒危药用植物的开发利用应走深度开发、可持续利用模式。     

发展中国工业旅游的思考

工业旅游在中国正逐渐兴起,工业已成为旅游开发的对象之一。本文阐述了工业旅游这一新概念,系统总结了工业旅游资源的特点,并探讨了我国工业旅游的基本模式及其发展前景展望     

云南木本食用油料资源及其开发

食用油料木本化对我国具有重要的战略意义。云南具有丰富多彩的木本食用油料树种,本文记述了云南具有重要开发价值的３２ 科８４ 种食用油料树种,并提出了它的三个开发利用的方向。     

自然资源二元价值论及其稀缺价格研究

本文提出了自然资源二元价值论,即认为自然资源物质无价值,自然资源资本具有虚假的社会价值,并据此提出了自然资源稀缺价格理论,同时对现行自然资源价格评估方法作了分析,认为影子价格法是目前最适合的自然资源价格评估方法。