The Costs of Meeting a Drinking Water Quality Standard: The Case of Atrazine in Italy

Abstract

In general, man-made contamination of groundwater is an unintentional outcome of the activities of those engaged in, for example, agricultural or industrial production, or of households’ consumption activities. A fundamental problem is that these people whose activities cause the contamination are often not those that are subsequently affected by it. This means that the activities which cause contamination are not automatically restricted by the damage caused by them. Such contamination is an example of a negative externality: the behaviour of one group of people has a damaging impact on the well-being of a second group of people, but this impact is not taken into account by the first group.

The author is indebted to, among others, Lars Bergman, Michael Faure, Enzo Funari, Per-Olov Johansson, Richard Lloyd, Constantino Nurizzo, D. Michael Pugh, Timothy M. Swanson, Marco Vighi, and Giuseppe Zanin for data, help and comments. The usual disclaimer applies. Financial support from the European Science Foundation and the Swedish Council for Planning and Coordination of Research is gratefully acknowledged. The author is presently visiting The Beijer International Institute of Ecological Economics, Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Box 50005, S-104 05 Stockholm, Sweden.