10.2190/QV81-1QU6-QNHJ-T95G QV811QU6QNHJT95G 1 Cost and Benefits of Drinking Water Treatment 1 30 20020509 20020509 20020509 20020509 QV811QU6QNHJT95G.pdf http://baywood.metapress.com/link.asp?target=contribution&id=QV811QU6QNHJT95G 1 Robert M. Clark James A. Goodrich John C. Ireland Drinking Water Research Division, Municipal Environmental Research Laboratory, Cincinnati, Ohio As inflationary and regulatory pressures increase and regulated industries and the public question the usefulness of investing in environmental control measures, a need to relate environmental control costs to their benefits is more apparent. This article develops a framework for evaluating the costs and benefits of environmental control and preventive public health practices and asks the policy question: How do we achieve the best mix of protection against infectious disease and toxic chemicals in drinking water? In an attempt to answer this question, the costs and benefits of chlorination and filtration are analyzed retrospectively, and the results of this analysis extended to include a newer technology, granular activated carbon (GAC) filtration. Both a net benefit and cost per life saved approach is used in the analysis. The issue of uncertainty in estimating benefits and the resulting impact on the selection of an optimal strategy is examined. Net benefits associated with chlorination and filtration are shown to be more than adequate for installation of these technologies; with GAC technology, the relative benefits drop. The best cost benefit relationship for GAC technology results when GAC replaces sand in the filtration scheme. Benefits tend to increase with increasing scale of service. R. M. Clark, The Safe Drinking Water Act: It's Implications for Planning, in <i>Municipal Water Systems—The Challenge for Urban Resource Management</i>, David Holtz and Scott Sebastian (eds.), Holcomb Research Institute, Indiana University Press, Bloomington, Indiana, 1978. Personal communication with Clifford Russell, Resources for the Future. T. Page, R. Harris, and J. Bruser, <i>Removal of Carcinogens from Drinking Water: A Cost-Benefit Analysis</i>, Social Science Working Paper 230, Division of the Humanities and Social Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, January 1979. National Interim Primary Drinking Water Regulation, Control of Trihalomethanes in Drinking Water: Final Rule. Federal Regulation 44:231:68690. D. A. Holmquist, Relation of Improvements in Water Supplies to Typhoid Fever and Other Intestinal Diseases, <i>Journal of the New England Water Works, 38</i>, pp, 237-247, 1924. G. A. Johnson, Present-Day Water Filtration Practice, <i>Journal of the American Water Works Association, 1</i>:3, p. 516, March, 1914. J. C. Hoff, The Relationship of Turbidity to Disinfection of Potable Water, in <i>Evaluation of the Microbiology Standards for Drinking Water</i>, Charles W. Hendricks (ed.), U. S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D. C. K. P. Cantor, R. Hoover, T. J. Maison, et al., Associations of Cancer Mortality with Halomethanes in Drinking Water, <i>Journal of the National Cancer Institute, 61</i>, pp. 979-985, November 4, October, 1978. T. Page and R. H. Harris, Relation Between Cancer Mortality and Drinking Water in Louisiana, unpublished, 1975. Committee Report, Organic Contaminants in Water Supplies, <i>Journal of the American Water Works Association, 67</i>:8, pp. 418-424, 1975. T. J. Mason and F. W. McKay, <i>U. S. Cancer Mortality by County: 1950-1969</i>, DHEW Publications No. (NIH) 74-615. J. M. Symons and R. M. Clark, <i>Interim Treatment Guide for Controlling Organic Contaminants in Drinking Water Using Granular Activated Carbon</i>, Water Supply Research Division, Municipal Environmental Protection Agency, Cincinnati, Ohio, pp. 36-45, January 1978. M. J. Baily, Reducing Risks to Life, <i>American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research</i>, Washington, D. C., 1980. R. L. Raucher, A Conceptual Framework for Measuring the Benefits of Groundwater Protection, <i>Water Resources Research, 19</i>:2, pp. 320-326, April 1983.