A method for estimating the local area economic damages of Superfund waste sites

Miscellaneous · Wed Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 1992

OSTI ID:7245811

Walker, D R

National Priority List (NPL) sites, or more commonly called Superfund sites, are hazardous waste sites (HWS) deemed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to impose the greatest risks to human health or welfare or to the environment. HWS are placed and ranked for cleanup on the NPL based on a score derived from the Hazard Ranking System (HRS), which is a scientific assessment of the health and environmental risks posed by HWS. A concern of the HRS is that the rank of sites is not based on benefit-cost analysis. The main objective of this dissertation is to develop a method for estimating the local area economic damages associated with Superfund waste sites. Secondarily, the model is used to derive county-level damage estimates for use in ranking the county level damages from Superfund sites. The conceptual model used to describe the damages associated with Superfund sites is a household-firm location decision model. In this model assumes that households and firms make their location choice based on the local level of wages, rents and amenities. The model was empirically implemented using 1980 census microdata on households and workers in 253 counties across the US. The household sample includes data on the value and structural characteristics of homes. The worker sample includes the annual earnings of workers and a vector worker attributes. The microdata was combined with county level amenity data, including the number of Superfund sites. The hedonic pricing technique was used to estimate the effect of Superfund sites on average annual wages per household and on monthly expenditures on housing. The results show that Superfund sites impose statistically significant damages on households. The annual county damages from Superfund sites for a sample of 151 counties was over 14 billion dollars. The ranking of counties using the damage estimates is correlated with the rank of counties using the HRS.

• Research Organization: Michigan State Univ., East Lansing, MI (United States)
• OSTI ID: 7245811
• Resource Relation: Other Information: Thesis (Ph.D.)
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

29 ENERGY PLANNING
POLICY AND ECONOMY
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
US SUPERFUND
COST BENEFIT ANALYSIS
REGIONAL ANALYSIS
HOUSEHOLDS
PROBABILISTIC ESTIMATION
STATISTICS
ECONOMIC ANALYSIS
ECONOMICS
LAWS
MATHEMATICS
POLLUTION LAWS
290300* - Energy Planning & Policy- Environment
Health
& Safety
290201 - Energy Planning & Policy- Economics- (1992-)
540250 - Environment
Terrestrial- Site Resource & Use Studies- (1990-)