Economic Aspects in the Investigation of Ground‐Water Contamination Episodes

The paper examines some economic aspects of ground‐water pollution, focusing on the exploitation of an aquifer as a source of drinking water. Using the contamination episode at Price Landfill, New Jersey, as a case study, it addresses analytical and information issues which characterize ground‐water pollution. Involved here are uncertainties associated with the environmental medium (especially knowledge of solute‐transport processes), and health risk assessment (principally dose‐response relationships). The field application employed two approaches to the modeling of the physical‐chemical processes to derive mortality risk estimates. These estimates in turn form the basis for preliminary assessment of expected damages: reduced longevity, and cost of control and remedial measures. The results are offered as an essential informational input for a benefit‐cost analysis of ground‐water protection and management policies.