The federal Clean Water Act was an act passed for the main purpose of protecting water bodies from pollution (Younos 12). The act sets water quality standards to protect the fish, drinking water and swimming and agriculture use.
The standards were set considering the various water pollutants such as metal, bacteria, harmful nutrients and mercury. According to the Environmental Law Institute, all water bodies under the act are supposed to meet the standards set otherwise the water body is impaired (540).
The process of regulating the water quality requires the state to assess the impaired body and determine whether the water body meets the standards.
The state then lists all the water bodies that do not meet the required standard. Lastly, the state will carry out an updated Total Maximum Daily Loads (Younos 12).
To effectively address the dissolved oxygen and total maximum daily load act, the P trading system would be more effective as opposed to the regulatory approach.
The regulatory approach requires that every stakeholder reduce their emission to the level required by law. The P trading system will allow stakeholders to pay and implement the P reducing management actions on Spokane River Basin.
The P trading system is a better approach because it will improve efficiency in the running of the water programs. The stakeholders have a profit incentive and this will drive them to cut down costs and be more efficient (Chin 19).
The regulation system will require for example, a large number of human resources to conduct the annual analysis on the Spokane River Basin. This will take time and money because all the employees need to be paid.
The shareholders however, will introduce electronic systems that will run and record the oxygen level and level of pollutants in the waters (Chin 19). The stakeholders will not have political distractions interfere with the daily monitoring of the waters.
When the state runs the water program, in case of political interference the aquatic program may be intercepted (Younos 13). Because the stakeholders have profits as their main intention, it will come up with long-term initiatives to clean the waters.
This is an added advantage because the program will ensure that the standards set by law are met to restore waters. Lastly the stakeholders will hold public interest into consideration. This means that the water management programs can be improved water quality standards at Spokane River Basin.
The stakeholders’ benefit as a result of paying to implement the reduction of phosphorus in exchange they get rights to discharge it to the river.
Through the P trading system the stakeholders are able to learn more about water contamination (Younos 13). They benefit from this system because they gain a better understanding of water pollutants, effects of water volumes on surfaces and aquatic habitat and diversity.
By running and managing the quality of water at Spokane River Basin, the shareholders are able to come up with innovative techniques.
This will bring to attention other watershed regulators and the stakeholders could be sub-contracted to handle the water impairment programs. Depending on the various state laws, the stakeholders can confidently apply for other watersheds management contracts (Environment law institute 540).
The stakeholders benefit from buying the rights to discharged phosphorus to the river because they are able to attract local involvement. Local involvement is an effective cost-cutting technique that allows the community to participate in the various water projects (Chin 21).
Once the stakeholders run the water projects the citizens show commitment by either volunteering community work or contributions. The stakeholders also attract a lot of funding to implement the Clean Water Act. Such an approach attracts lots of funding due to the effective systems placed by the stakeholders to monitor the waters (Chin 21).
The various water quality-monitoring activities introduced identify opportunities for funding by local government, corporations and environmental agencies.
Lastly the stakeholders are able to acquire environmental awards and prestigious recognitions for the efforts placed in conserving the environment.
There are many benefits associated with having water quality, and these benefits are identified by the various uses of water. While some of the benefits cannot be measured others can be calculated (Younos 14).
Clean and quality water improves aquatic life allowing better production. Quality water has both sufficient oxygen and controlled nutrients, which play a huge role in aquatic life breeding.
Quality water provides drinking water for human beings and animal. Contaminated water has to go through water treatment to make it safe for drinking. As a result people especially in towns and cities will be forced to pay more for clean tap water as a result of the many process it has to undergo to make it clean.
Quality water adds value to the water supplied and cuts down cost of supplying safe and drinking water to the taps. Water is important for agriculture use, because all plants need water to grow.
If the water is contaminated with substances such as mercury and phosphorus, the plants may not grow productively. These harmful substances kill the growth of the plants and if the water is too contaminated the plants do not grow at all. Hence irrigating plants with quality water ensures healthy agriculture produce (Younos 15).
The food harvested is then safe because it does not pose any risk to humans and animals. Quality water also affects the air quality content.
Water bodies that are contaminated when evaporation takes place, they release contaminated air that could be harmful. Watershed management is important to have the quality of air uptake increased (Younos 16).
Non- value benefits are also achieved due to the effect of using quality water. The use of quality water in the long run is sufficiently enough to register change and benefits.
Quality water used in the homesteads has been seen to reduce the household expenditure (Younos 16). Quality water also improves the human body in the long run because the water taken is pure and has no water pollutant substances.
In summary, the Clean Water Act has played a huge role in ensuring safe and quality water is always available. More states need to pick up the trading system to cut down water management systems cost and enjoy the benefits of water quality.
Once the costs are measured against the benefits level, the benefits prove the need to invest in water management systems. The trading system is an effective approach because it set its standards based on priority and purpose.
Once the water quality standards are set, the stakeholders then set higher standards in terms of water level pollutants. The stakeholders finally calculate the benefits and come up with water quality monitoring activities that are effective and attainable. The trading system justifies the quantification and monetarist ion of welfare.
Works Cited
Chin, David. Water quality engineering systems. New York, John and Wiley Sons, 2006.Print
Environmental law institute. Environmental law desk book. Washington D.C, Environmental law institute publication. 2003. Print
Younos, Tamim. Total maximum daily load: approaches and challenges. Oklahoma, Penn Well Corporation, 2005.Print