title: Costs of abandoned coal mine reclamation and associated recreation benefits in Ohio.
abstract: Two hundred years of coal mining in Ohio have degraded land and water resources, imposing social costs on its citizens. An interdisciplinary approach employing hydrology, geographic information systems, and a recreation visitation function model, is used to estimate the damages from upstream coal mining to lakes in Ohio. The estimated recreational damages to five of the coal-mining-impacted lakes, using dissolved sulfate as coal-mining-impact indicator, amount to $21 Million per year. Post-reclamation recreational benefits from reducing sulfate concentrations by 6.5% and 15% in the five impacted lakes were estimated to range from $1.89 to $4.92 Million per year, with a net present value ranging from $14.56 Million to $37.79 Million. A benefit costs analysis (BCA) of recreational benefits and coal mine reclamation costs provides some evidence for potential Pareto improvement by investing limited resources in reclamation projects.
authors.affiliation: Department of Agricultural, Environmental, and Development Economics, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, 2120 Fyffe Road, Columbus, OH 43210, USA. saishruti@gmail.com
authors.forename: Shruti K
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Mishra
authors.forename: Frederick J
authors.initials: FJ
authors.lastname: Hitzhusen
authors.forename: Brent L
authors.initials: BL
authors.lastname: Sohngen
authors.forename: Jean-Michel
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Guldmann
mesh_terms: D003032:Coal Mining / Q000191:economics*; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources / Q000191:economics; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D040362:Geographic Information Systems; D009820:Ohio; D011998:Recreation