Economic damages from residential use of mineralized water supply

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Household appliances and personal items in contact with water supplied municipally or from private sources are subject to physical damages from chemical and other constituents of the water. This study translates these damages into economic losses for a typical household. Then it aggregates these losses at the national and individual state levels. To do so required several stages of analysis. First, the types of physical damages expected and the associated water quality determinants were identified, and the physical effects were then translated into economic losses. Second, damage functions were formulated to predict likely impacts of water quality changes on each household unit affected. Third, a computer program based on these functions was designed to estimate total damages per typical household and to aggregate them over selected regions. Finally, the program was applied to state‐by‐state data describing water supply sources and socioeconomic parameters. Total annual damages to U.S. residents in 1970 were estimated to be in the range $0.65–$3.45 billion, the mean being $1.75 billion. The mean translates to $8.60 per person annually. States having the highest total damages were California ($230 million) and Illinois ($164 million). On a per capita basis, Arizona ($22.53) and New Mexico ($18.58) ranked highest, whereas South Carolina ($1.15) and Oregon ($1.73) were at the other end of the spectrum. When per capita damages were compared by source of water supply, private wells were highest at an average of $12.34, treated groundwater was next at $11.20, and treated surface water was last at only $5.83.