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.     

江苏省环保资金事前补助金额校正优化研究--以江苏省燃煤发电机组SCR脱硝工程为例

江苏省环保专项资金一般根据专家经验对项目核定后进行事前补助,事后开展针对项目财务支出的合规性评价,但忽视了专家核定补助金额是否合理。根据近3年江苏省燃煤发电机组SCR脱硝工艺典型项目审计报告,分析了项目审计核定支出额与专家核定支出额的规模(100 MW级及以下、300 MW级、600 MW级及以上)差异、区域(苏南、苏中、苏北)差异及其影响因素,发现100 MW级及以下机组环保资金审计核定支出额显著高于专家核定补助额,在剔除100 MW级及以下机组后,苏南地区项目环保资金审计核定支出额显著高于专家核定补助额,基于此提出了项目补助费用校正优化建议,为环保资金科学分配、提高财政资金支出效率提供了理论依据。     

Home energy efficiency grants and advice: findings from the English Midlands

Research was conducted in Nottinghamshire, England to investigate public attitudes regarding home energy efficiency issues. Quantitative data were collected in the form of a postal survey, achieving over three hundred responses. Additionally, predominantly qualitative data were collected in semi-structured interviews in 15 homes. The issues investigated included the grant-funded energy efficiency measures installed by the public, the organisations providing grants, the means by which the recipients were referred to the organisations, and the public's preferences regarding energy efficiency advice. Findings were made about the local authority's success in encouraging the take-up of energy efficiency grants, about the public's preferences for the means by which advice should be provided, about trust relating to energy efficiency grants provided by gas and electricity suppliers, and about people's knowledge of the most effective energy efficiency measures. Additional findings were drawn about specific energy efficiency issues, including old heating systems and compact fluorescent light bulbs.     

STATE WATER QUALITY CONTROL PROGRAM IN ARIZONA1

ABSTRACT: Arizona's water pollution control program is based on authorties of Arizona Revised Statutes and Public Law 92–500, the Federal Water Pollution Control Act Amendments of 1972. The primary areas of this program are monitoring, facility inspections, plan review, planning, discharge permits and grants for the construction of publicly-owned waste water treatment facilities. The discharge permit program deals with control of point-source discharges and is administered by the United States Environmental Protection Agency. The planning and construction grants programs are administered by the State Water Quality Control Council and are implemented by the Bureau of Water Quality Control, which serves as staff to the Council. There are several challenges that face the State in this program. First is the adaptation of the “eastern law” to deal with Arizona's water quality problems. Second is to address problems caused by a long history of “laissez-faire” environmental quality management. Third is a mutual cooperation and coordination among the many entities involved in water resources management. Areas of particular interest in the State's program is the process setting water quality standards and the involvement of people of diversified backgrounds in the field of areawide planning under Section 208 of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, which is primarily concerned with non-point sources of water pollution.     

DISTRIBUTIONAL IMPACTS OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT: FEDERAL GRANTS FOR WATER POLLUTION CONTROL1

ABSTRACT: The income redistribution effects of waste water treatment grants are estimated for each state participating in five federal programs. Both gross and net effects per state and per capita are discussed. The impact of the tax structure used to finance such grants and the grant formulae are investigated.     

HISTORY OF THE FEDERAL-STATE COOPERATIVE WATER RESOURCES RESEARCH INSTITUTE PROGRAM1

ABSTRACT: This paper presents a condensed history of the State Water Resources Research Institute Program, which evolved from the Water Resources Research Act of 1964, as amended, the Water Research and Development Act of 1978, Public Law (P.L.) 96–457, and the Water Research and Development Act of 1984. These laws authorized the following components of the Institute Program: (1) the annual allotment and matching grants program for the Institutes, and (2) the additional and saline water research programs for organizations in addition to the State Water Resources Research Institutes. The paper covers the legislative history of the Institute Program and reviews authorized and appropriated funds for the program from fiscal year 1965 to fiscal year 1986. It also discusses the Institutes’role in conducting and sponsoring water-resources research and development, training of scientists and engineers, and coordinating, disseminating, and transferring water-research results. The State Water Resources Research Program has been administered by the Office of Water Resources Research (OWRR) (1964–1974), the Office of Water Research and Technology (OWRT) (1974–1982), the Office of Water Policy (OWP) (1982–1983), and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) (1983-present).