Water Online

June 2013

Water Online the Magazine gives Water & Wastewater Engineers and end-users a venue to find project solutions and source valuable product information. We aim to educate the engineering and operations community on important issues and trends.

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Tutorial ed cost of securing and delivering additional potable supplies in lieu of reclaimed water — then it typically becomes evident that the utility and the community are better off financially (and often environmentally and socially, too) by investing in water reuse, because the overall benefits often do outweigh the costs. The TBL approach is also useful where some options empirically robust forms. For example, in some applications the results are only described qualitatively. There also are practitioners who apply subjective scores and weights to outcomes and cast these subjective rankings within the three bottom lines. The qualitative and subjective scoring/ ranking approaches have some merit. However, the most useful and sound TBL applications rely as much as possible on objective, quantitative measures of the benefits and costs, which can be derived by drawing upon an array of advanced and professionally accepted estimation approaches, including what economists refer to as nonmarket valuation techniques. These techniques enable suitably trained professionals to develop valid monetary measures for impacts that are not typically reflected directly in prices observed from market transactions, such as the value of improved waterbased recreation or of enhanced critical habitat for special status wildlife (such as salmon). Advantages To Using A Quantitative TBL Approach Our experience has demonstrated that the quantitative TBL approach can be extremely useful as a way of understanding and communicating the big picture values of a proposed or contemplated action. This can overcome limitations of other, less comprehensive assessment approaches. Factoring in Important Co-Benefits. Although many water reuse programs may have costs that outweigh anticipated revenues (because recycled water is often sold at rates that do not recover full costs), we have applied the TBL approach to clearly demonstrate that when examining the broader perspective of utility- and community-wide impacts as a whole, the benefits often greatly outweigh the costs. In other words, various factors (such as discounted pricing of reclaimed water) can make a water reuse program appear to be an unwise financial investment when examined in isolation and focusing only on revenues and costs. But when the broader water sector implications are considered — including the avoidwateronline.com ■ Water Online The Magazine 17

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