Use of technical and economic analysis for optimizing technology selection and remedial design for contaminated sites
- Komex-H2O Science, Huntington Beach, CA (United States)
The decision to remediate a contaminated site can be seen from the macroeconomic and microeconomic viewpoints. Macroeconomics can be used to plan and account for the overall cost of pollution as part of a firm`s production, and thus make overall decisions on the real cost of pollution and the level of clean-up which may be called for. Valuation of damaged resources, option values and intrinsic worth is an important part of this process. Once the decision to remediate has been taken, the question becomes how best to remediate. Microeconomic analysis deals with providing efficient allocative decisions for reaching specified goals. it is safe to say that cost is one of the single most important factors in site clean-up decision making. A basic rule of remediation is often taken to be the maximization of contaminant mass removed per dollar spent. However, remediation may also be governed by other objectives and constraints. In some situations, minimization of time, rather than cost, could be the constraint. Or perhaps the objective could be to achieve a set level of clean-up for the lowest possible cost, even if a large program would result in unit-cost reductions. Evaluation of the economics of a clean-up project is directly linked to the objectives of the site owner, and the constraints within which the remediation is to be performed. Economic analysis of remedial options for containment of a 350,000 L hydrocarbon spill migrating through fractured rock into a river in Alberta, Canada, clear direction to the site owner.
- OSTI ID:
- 398117
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-960393-; TRN: 96:029976
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 6. annual West Coast conference on contaminated soils and groundwater, Newport Beach, CA (United States), 11-14 Mar 1996; Other Information: PBD: 1996; Related Information: Is Part Of The sixth West Coast conference on contaminated soils and groundwater: Analysis, fate, environmental and public health effects, and remediation. Part 2; PB: 226 p.
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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