WSP10301 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

34 Estimating Economic Impacts of Salinity,.. N o r,:, ~ Health Services to set standard performance levels for water treatment systems and requires that systems be certified before sale. The other law makes illegal the practice of making false statements about the quality of tap water or to overstate the effectiveness of treatment systems a120 offered for sale or rent . Articles, such as "Should Tap Water Be For Drinking," in the September 1986 California Magazine have focussed concern on toxic con- tamination of drinking water while recognizing that many consumers seem to prefer the taste of bottled water. A September 8, 1986, article in the Riverside Press-Enterprise is headlined "Bot- tled Water-Sales Soaring With Contamination Scares." The article notes that while California's bottled water purchases remain high, consumers elsewhere in the country are buying more bottled water as they begin to fear their tap water is con- taminated. StilI, it is clear that taste, or percep- tion of better taste, plays a role in the consump- tion of bottled water. It is less clear that the laste perception is related to salinity since bot- tled water sales are among the highest in the country in Los Angeles County which receives very little Colorado River water and is generally supplied with low TDS water. Orange County and the rest of Southern California are much more widely supplied with Colorado River water and more saline groundwater, yet taste is a sig- nificantly lower factor in bottled water purchases according to the survey's results, Costs of bottled water can be linked to salinity damages insofar as salinity is propor- tional to hardness, which causes increases in home water softening that affects taste, or when salinity is itself so high as to cause noticeable taste effects, Usually, that level cannot be deter- mined without reference to a more complete range of water constituents. However, the proportional TDS/hardness relationship found in Colorado River water does not hold in some areas served by local water supplies. Water hardness, which causes more home water softening, changes "the content and taste of water unfavorably and thus contribute[s] to wider use of bottled water,,,2) Types of Economic Damages to Households A number of previous studies have inves- tigated the relationship between water quality and consumer costs. As discussed above, there may not be any direct relationship between a single water constituent and damage to a household item. Even so, most of these studies have singled out TDS or hardness as water con- stituents that are known to cause damage and also are usually identified in the samples of study area water quality. Previous studies. In one of the earlier (1972) studies, Metcalf and Eddy's The Economic Value of Water Quality, the principal parameters of water quality were found to be TDS, hardness and chloride ion concentration. TDS was found to af- fect bottled water purchases but not purchases of other bottled beverages. Soap and detergent use was correlated to hardness, and high chloride increased corrosivity. Damage to cloth- ing, landscaping, and plumbing repairs in the home did not correlate to water quality.22 On the other hand, the 1967 Black and Veatch report, Economic Effects of Milleral Content ill Municipal Water Supplies, concluded that mineralized water did reduce the useful life of fabrics and various home appliances and fix- lures, and increased the use of soaps and deter- gents. This report does caution that the specific mix of minerals a water supply must be con- sidered, not simply the presence of minerals.23 As is true of many of the studies, the Orange County Water District's 1972 Water Quality and Consumer Costs reviewed the literature. They looked at DeBoer, et aI., (1961) on use of detergents; Leeds, Hill, and Jewett, 20Mctropolitan Water District or Southern California..Eoali. 6 (1986), p. 3. 21Califomia Department or Water Resources, Southern District. Consumer Costs or Water Onality in nomestir W::ucr I J,,~_' l'lmpnt' Al"P.a. Los Angeles: Buthor, June 1978. ~etcalr and Eddy, Engineers, The Pronomir Value of W;itt';r nll~lity, Washington, D.C.: Ortice or Saline Waler, January 1972, pp. 17-18. 23Black and Veatch, Prnnnmir Ffferts.. pp. 3-4.