Willing to Pay
for Fish Alive
Some industry executives and White
House officials argue that the vast majority of aquatic life destroyed
in once-through cooling systems is of no significant economic value.
They argue that because they are not recreationally or commercially sought
after species they are not worth protecting. This view, however, simply
does not hold water. These organisms that the White House calls “economically
insignificant” in fact support commercial and recreational economies
worth hundreds of billions of dollars in the United States alone.
What they may lack in size, phytoplankton, eggs, larvae and other tiny
aquatic organisms make up for in importance. The public understands this
and is willing to pay to protect aquatic life from wasteful and destructive
once-through cooling. Industry and government should listen to the numbers.
EPA’s own environmental economists have been proving for years
that the value of microscopic aquatic life is indeed very significant.
In 2005, EPA began work on a survey to estimate the public’s willingness
to pay to reduce impingement and entrainment at cooling water intakes.
Seventy-four percent of participants in nationwide focus groups said
they would pay between $12 and $54 per year to save aquatic life from
death in cooling water systems not because they depend on it for their
direct economic livelihood or recreational use, but simply for the benefit
of knowing that it exists now and for future generations.
In February 2006, peer reviewers approved EPA’s focus group studies
and willingness to pay survey design, suggesting only minor corrections.
The corrections required only a short turnaround time, but EPA stretched
the delay. The study’s recommendations were ultimately omitted
from consideration in the agency’s final Phase III regulations.
The final rule from June 2006 reads, “EPA was unable to assign
a monetary value that fully captured the value of avoiding the environmental
impacts… because the necessary information was not available.” In
fact, the information was readily available. EPA had delayed the results,
sweeping the science that did not support their approach under the rug.
The focus groups had showed that Americans are willing to pay to correct
this problem. Economic benefit, measured by “willingness to pay,” far
exceeds the cost of implementing closed-loop technology for the 146 existing
facilities that are covered under the Phase III regulations. EPA estimates
the cost of the necessary upgrades to these plants at $39 million dollars
per year. So while Americans are willing to pay to protect our aquatic
ecosystems, it would require less than 50 cents per household per year
to move all the existing Phase III facilities to closed-loop systems.
Once again the White House’s fuzzy economics just don’t add
up.
