Faithin Omaha eBook Collection

Download or read book Evaluating Water Recycling in California written by Sachi De Souza and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This document describes how to complete an economic analysis, financial analysis, and cost allocation for a water recycling project. Water recycling is gaining importance in California because of scarcity, rising wastewater treatment costs, uncertainty in traditional supply sources, and incentives for conservation. To ensure the most efficient use of resources, it is important to evaluate whether water recycling makes economic sense. This is done using an economic analysis. The economic analysis compares alternatives by looking at all direct benefits and costs from the project and evaluating them in terms of overall expected net present value. Identification and calculation of net benefits identifies desirable projects. It also assists in designing a cost allocation based on a Beneficiary Pays Principle. The financial analysis is used to determine the financial feasibility of the project. An application of economic analysis is used to compare alternatives for water recycling at a southern California location where discharge from the inland wastewater treatment facility helps recharge the downstream coastal aquifer. Alternatives included the base case where neither community recycles, recycling at the coastal location only, recycling at the inland location only, and recycling at both locations. Results from the analysis suggest that water recycling is infeasible in all scenarios with net benefits less than zero. The most economically desirable alternative was for both locations to recycle.