Water Quality
Water quality can be directly impacted by human development, climate change, and energy and land use. Research at RFF informs water quality policy by assessing the economic value of drinking water and freshwater resources critical to healthy communities and ecosystems.
Measuring the Cost: Exploring the Impacts of Water
Watch a video from our recent water pollution event.
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Water Quality Trading
Read about how water quality trading can fix the agricultural nonpoint source problem.
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Media Highlight — Mar 18, 2021
What We've Learned About Long-Term Investments in Water: A Conversation with Margaret Walls
Senior Fellow Margaret Walls discusses how forests naturally reduce flooding and contribute to good water quality in a podcast episode for the partnership group Keeping Forests.
Resources Magazine — Feb 25, 2021
Navigating the Waters of the United States
A recent report finds that the Trump administration’s Navigable Waters Protection Rule revises crucial distinctions that define protected waters, reducing safeguards for US waters based on flawed methods and unsubstantiated assumptions.
Media Highlight — Dec 21, 2020
Ag Payments to Control Nutrients Should Be Based on Results
RFF Senior Fellow Len Shabman contributes to an op-ed for the Bay Journal about regulatory programs in the Chesapeake Bay.
Journal Article — Sep 20, 2020
Greater Contribution From Agricultural Sources to Future Reactive Nitrogen Deposition in the United States
This research identifies protected areas that would benefit most from better reactive nitrogen management strategies.
Journal Article — Jul 26, 2020
The Economics of the Joint Management of Water Resources and Aquatic Species in the United States
A review of the economic literature aimed at quantifying the impacts of water resource management on aquatic species in the United States and the potential welfare gains of managing water and aquatic species systems jointly.
Journal Article — Mar 18, 2020
Hydroeconomic Modeling of Resource Recovery from Wastewater: Implications for Water Quality and Quantity Management
In this article, authors explore how a hydroeconomic framework can be used to explore the socioeconomic implications of strategies that target deployment of wastewater treatment with resource recovery.
Workshop/Seminar — Dec 4, 2018
Measuring the Cost: Exploring the Impacts of Water Pollution
Resources for the Future and the Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future of Cornell University host Measuring the Cost: Exploring the Impacts of Water Pollution.
Conferences & Panels — Jul 19, 2012
Regulatory Impacts on the US Electricity Sector: A Modeling Workshop
a one-day workshop that discussed existing and ongoing research into the potential effects of CSAPR, MATS, and other prominent rules
Workshop/Seminar — Apr 4, 2012
Green Infrastructure: Using Natural Landscapes for Flood Mitigation and Water Quality Improvements
Media Highlight — Mar 18, 2021
What We've Learned About Long-Term Investments in Water: A Conversation with Margaret Walls
Senior Fellow Margaret Walls discusses how forests naturally reduce flooding and contribute to good water quality in a podcast episode for the partnership group Keeping Forests.
Media Highlight — Dec 21, 2020
Ag Payments to Control Nutrients Should Be Based on Results
RFF Senior Fellow Len Shabman contributes to an op-ed for the Bay Journal about regulatory programs in the Chesapeake Bay.
Media Highlight — Nov 23, 2020
Coastal Farmers Being Driven Off Their Lands as Salt Poisons the Soil
A story by the University of Maryland's Howard Center for Investigative Journalism details work by RFF Senior Fellow Rebecca Epanchin-Niell.
Resources Magazine — Feb 25, 2021
Navigating the Waters of the United States
A recent report finds that the Trump administration’s Navigable Waters Protection Rule revises crucial distinctions that define protected waters, reducing safeguards for US waters based on flawed methods and unsubstantiated assumptions.
Resources Magazine — Jun 15, 2020
Market-Based Approaches to Environmental Policy: A “Refresher” Course
This archived article drawn from a 2003 issue of Resources expounds on the effectiveness of market-based solutions to pollution problems.
Resources Radio — Apr 28, 2020
Is the Trump Administration Ditching WOTUS?, with Ellen Gilinsky
Ellen Gilinsky discusses the lead-up to a new rule—finalized just last week—that clarifies which wetland and waterways qualify for Clean Water Act protections.