Public perceptions of recycled water: a survey of visitors to the London 2012 Olympic Park

The Old Ford Water Recycling Plant, operated by Thames Water, was used to supply non-potable recycled blackwater to some of the venues at the London 2012 Games. In an effort to learn from this experience, Thames Water commissioned a survey of visitors to the Olympic Park during the Games to explore public responses to the water recycling project. Results show a very high level of support for using non-potable recycled blackwater, both in public venues and in homes. Such findings may indicate a growing receptivity towards this technology, and show that Thames Water (and other private water companies) are well placed to encourage and even lead public discussion around the role of water reuse in the future of urban water supplies

Applying the water safety plan to water reuse: towards a conceptual risk management framework

The Water Safety Plan (WSP) is receiving increasing attention as a recommended risk management approach for water reuse through a range of research programmes, guidelines and standards. Numerous conceptual modifications of the approach – including the Sanitation Safety Plan, the Water Cycle Safety Plan, and even a dedicated Water Reuse Safety Plan – have been put forward for this purpose. However, these approaches have yet to encapsulate the full spectrum of possible water reuse applications, and evidence of their application to reuse remains limited. Through reviewing the existing evidence base, this paper investigates the potential for adapting the WSP into an approach for water reuse. The findings highlight a need for the management of risk to reflect on, and facilitate the inclusion of, broader contexts and objectives for water reuse schemes. We conclude that this could be addressed through a more integrated approach to risk management, encapsulated within an overarching risk management framework (adapted from the WHO's Framework for safe drinking water) and operationalised through the Water Reuse Safety Plan (WRSP). We also propose that the WRSP should be based on modifications to the existing WSP approach, including an increased emphasis on supporting communication and engagement, and improvements in decision support mechanisms to better account for uncertainty, risk interactions and risk prioritisation

The Sun Doesn\u27t Always Shine in Ohio: Reevaluating Renewable Portfolio Standards in Light of Changed Conditions

In 2014, with the signing of Senate Bill 310 (S.B. 310), Ohio became the first state to put a temporary “freeze” on its renewable portfolio standard (RPS) and energy efficiency mandates. The law has generated nationwide attention and been criticized as a step back in the state’s clean energy policy. This Note examines the central justifications for the passage of S.B. 310, challenging conventional wisdom that the law does not serve the interests of Ohio citizens. After the passage of Ohio’s RPS in 2008, the economic and energy landscape within the state changed dramatically, due in large part to technological advances allowing for the development of the state’s large natural gas deposits. In order to fully assess these changed conditions, as well as the economic impact the energy mandates were having on ratepayers, Ohio lawmakers passed S.B. 310. While renewable resource advocates argue that increased renewable energy benefits the state of Ohio, this Note argues that S.B. 310 was an example of prudent lawmaking and should serve as a model for other states that have undergone changes in their energy landscape and economic situation since implementing their renewable portfolio standards

The Sun Doesn\u27t Always Shine in Ohio: Reevaluating Renewable Portfolio Standards in Light of Changed Conditions

In 2014, with the signing of Senate Bill 310 (S.B. 310), Ohio became the first state to put a temporary “freeze” on its renewable portfolio standard (RPS) and energy efficiency mandates. The law has generated nationwide attention and been criticized as a step back in the state’s clean energy policy. This Note examines the central justifications for the passage of S.B. 310, challenging conventional wisdom that the law does not serve the interests of Ohio citizens. After the passage of Ohio’s RPS in 2008, the economic and energy landscape within the state changed dramatically, due in large part to technological advances allowing for the development of the state’s large natural gas deposits. In order to fully assess these changed conditions, as well as the economic impact the energy mandates were having on ratepayers, Ohio lawmakers passed S.B. 310. While renewable resource advocates argue that increased renewable energy benefits the state of Ohio, this Note argues that S.B. 310 was an example of prudent lawmaking and should serve as a model for other states that have undergone changes in their energy landscape and economic situation since implementing their renewable portfolio standards

Simulation of factors impeding water quality trading market performance

Over the past several decades, market-based approaches to natural resource management have received increased attention as a means to cost-effectively achieve environmental quality goals. Following on what has been hailed a success for reducing air pollution, water quality trading (WQT) has more recently been seen as the next great opportunity for reducing water pollution, especially for nutrient loading. Numerous trading programs have been pilot tested and/or adopted in states throughout the nation, with more than 70 programs now in operation (Breetz et al., 2004). WQT would allow multiple contributors to surface water degradation to determine how best to meet an overarching collective goal related to pollution reduction. WQT takes advantage of differences in pollution abatement costs. In the case of point/nonpoint source trading, such as between wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) and agricultural producers, it is often the agricultural producers who can achieve a given level of nutrient reduction at less cost through their adoption of various best management practices that reduce sedimentation and nutrient loading to surface waters. Trading would allow WWTPs to purchase “credits” generated by producers who reduced their pollution loading to achieve an equivalent level of reduction as might be required by a regulatory discharge permit at a lower overall cost. While there is substantial evidence that nonpoint sources have lower nutrient reduction costs than point sources, experience with WQT reveals a common theme: little or no trading activity. The success of WQT seems, in part, to depend on the structure of the market created to bring buyers and sellers together to transact exchanges. These outcomes suggest the presence of obstacles to trading that were not recognized in the design of existing programs. To examine the ways that various market imperfections may impact the performance of a WQT market, an agent-based model was constructed which simulated a hypothetical point-nonpoint market. In particular, the market was modeled using a variant of the sequential, bilateral trading algorithm proposed by Atkinson and Tietenberg (1991). Our proposed paper first presents an overview of the simulation modeling technique and then analyzes the effects of two prominent market impediments identified in the WQT literature: information levels and trading ratios. Information levels refer to buyers’ and sellers’ knowledge of each others’ bid prices. A frictionless WQT market would be one where all of the potential buyers (i.e., point sources) would know all of the sellers’ (i.e., nonpoint sources) offer prices and vice versa. In this full information environment, we can expect that trades would be consummated in the order of their gains. That is, first buyers and sellers to be paired together for trading would be the buyers with the highest offer prices and the sellers with the lowest bid prices. Successive trades will have successively smaller gains until the gap between bid and offer prices reaches zero. This is the textbook Walrasian market and would closely approximate a double auction institution, where all buyers and sellers submit their offers and bids, which are then sorted and matched by a centralized market manager. While the full information scenario serves as a useful benchmark, most existing WQT markets are decentralized in nature, so that limited information causes traders to be matched in a less efficient sequence. A variety of information levels are possible. One side of the market may have more information than the other (limited information) or neither side having any knowledge of the other side’s bid or offer prices (low information). Each of these scenarios leads to a different sequencing of trades. This paper analyzes the effect of different information levels on market performance. Market performance is measured in terms of cost savings, the number of credits traded, and the average reduction costs under different information scenarios. Trading ratios are a common component of many existing WQT programs. A typical trading ratio of 2:1 requires a nonpoint source to reduce two pounds of expected nutrient loading in order to receive one pound of trading credit. These ratios serve as a “safety factor” and are incorporated to account for the uncertainty in the measurement and monitoring of nonpoint source loading. Because nonpoint traders must reduce loading by 2 pounds for every 1 pound emitted by point source traders, there will be a net reduction of 1 pound of expected loading for each trade. So, while inhibiting some trades from ever occurring, trading ratios also have the potential to improve water quality beyond trading with a 1:1 trading ratio. This paper examines these tradeoffs in terms of effects on market performance and then describes procedures that can be used to characterize an optimal trading ratio if one exists. Because WQT programs, by nature, involve complex interactions between economics and the biophysical world, accurately simulating a real-world WQT market requires at minimum a basic understanding of the types of data that watershed models can provide. This paper concludes by briefly discussing data requirements, points of consideration, and integrative techniques used in the simulation of WQT in real-world watersheds.water quality trading, market based, trading ratio, information levels, point source, nonpoint source, simulation, Environmental Economics and Policy, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Disaggregated Spatial Modeling of Irrigated Land and Water Use

Land Economics/Use,

Choice Experiments to Assess Farmers' Willingness to Participate in a Water Quality Trading Market

Interest has grown in Water Quality Trading (WQT) as a means to achieve water quality goals, with more than 70 such programs now in operation in the United States. Substantial evidence exists that nonpoint sources can reduce nutrient loading at a much lower cost than point sources, implying the existence of gains from trade. Despite the potential gains, however, the most commonly noted feature of existing WQT markets is low trading volume, with many markets resulting in zero trades. This paper evaluates one explanation for the lack of participation from agricultural nonpoint sources. We test for and quantify the intangible costs that may deter farmers from trading even if the monetary benefits from doing so outweigh the observable out-of-pocket costs. We do so by designing and implementing a series of choice experiments to elicit WQT trading behavior of Great Plains crop producers in different situations. Attributes of the choice experiment included market rules and features (e.g., application time and effort, penalties for violations, means of monitoring compliance) that may affect farmers willingness to trade. The choice experiments were conducted with a total of 135 producers at four locations in the state of Kansas between August 2006 and January 2007. A Random Parameters Logit model is appropriate to analyze the resulting data, revealing diversity in the way that the attributes affect farmers choices.Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

The Inability of Ambipolar Diffusion to set a Characteristic Mass Scale in Molecular Clouds

We investigate the question of whether ambipolar diffusion (ion-neutral drift) determines the smallest length and mass scale on which structure forms in a turbulent molecular cloud. We simulate magnetized turbulence in a mostly neutral, uniformly driven, turbulent medium, using a three-dimensional, two-fluid, magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) code modified from Zeus-MP. We find that substantial structure persists below the ambipolar diffusion scale because of the propagation of compressive slow MHD waves at smaller scales. Contrary to simple scaling arguments, ambipolar diffusion thus does not suppress structure below its characteristic dissipation scale as would be expected for a classical diffusive process. We have found this to be true for the magnetic energy, velocity, and density. Correspondingly, ambipolar diffusion leaves the clump mass spectrum unchanged. Ambipolar diffusion appears unable to set a characteristic scale for gravitational collapse and star formation in turbulent molecular clouds.Comment: 16 pages, 5 figures. ApJ accepte

How Governance Regimes Shape the Implementation of Water Reuse Schemes

The governance dimensions of water reuse scheme development and operation, such as policies and regulatory frameworks, and public involvement and stakeholder collaboration, can serve to both facilitate and constrain wider adoption of water reuse practices. This paper explores the significance and underlying structure of the key governance challenges facing the water reuse sector in Europe. It presents empirical evidence from interviews and focus group sessions conducted at four water reuse schemes: an indirect potable reuse scheme at Torreele (Belgium), the urban reuse of treated municipal wastewater at the London Olympic Park (United Kingdom) and at Sabadell (Spain), and the reuse of agro-industrial effluent for irrigation at Capitanata (Italy). The findings underscore the importance of clarity in policy arrangements around water reuse, as well as of the financial competitiveness of reuse projects compared to alternative water supply options. Operators of water reuse schemes expressed a preference for water quality standards, which focus on appropriateness for use rather than over-emphasise the waters’ origin so that unnecessary treatment and costs can be avoided. Positive public support was widely acknowledged as an important factor in the success or failure of water reuse schemes. We conclude that constructive institutional relationships underpin many of the challenges faced by reuse scheme operators and that greater emphasis should be given to building confidence and gaining trust in water service providers through early identification of how governance regimes shape the viability of new scheme