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- Title
Estimating an Effluent Charge: The Reverse Mining Case.
- Authors
Peterson, Jerrold M.
- Abstract
This article examines the possibility of developing an effluent charge for Reserve Mining's discharge problem. Reserve Mining Corporation processes taconite pellets for two large integrated steel firms-Armco and Republic Steel Corporation. The process begins when Reserve mines taconite ore in Babbitt, Minnesota and transports this ore 47 miles to its Silver Bay plant located on the North Shore of Lake Superior. This article also attempts to offer an alternate abatement strategy to that being recommended in the court action. Society should consider imposing an effluent charge on Reserve Mining to cover the estimated social costs that Reserve's operation is imposing on the Lake Superior shoreline communities. The social costs represent the value of environmental damage which Reserve is inflicting on society through its current operation. These social costs include costs of purifying the lake water, the estimated health hazard remaining after water purification, the reduction in economic value of the lake's environment and a residual cost. The effluent charge is less than the cost of the pollution abatement strategy should not automatically force policymakers to reject the strategy. The abatement strategy called for may suggest that society has a strong preference for risk aversion and a clean environment.
- Subjects
MINNESOTA; UNITED States; RESERVE Mining Co.; MINING corporations; ENVIRONMENTAL impact charges; HEALTH risk assessment; ENVIRONMENTAL impact analysis; WATER purification; EXTERNALITIES; RISK aversion; POLICY sciences
- Publication
Land Economics, 1977, Vol 53, Issue 3, p328
- ISSN
0023-7639
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.2307/3146124