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Description:The primary objective of this study is to demonstrate how to quantify the interaction among economic activities and water effluent loadings for the area surrounding Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island. A second objective is to discuss some uses of an economic waste generation model in public decision-making. The study focuses on economic activity and its waterborne residuals within the Narragansett Bay Drainage Basin. This region accounts for over 90 percent of the economic activity of Rhode Island and slightly less than 10 percent of that of Massachusetts.The bases for the study are an input-output framework for the area's economy disaggregated into 59 endogenous sectors and 4 exogenous final demand sectors, and a matrix of effluent coefficients and water usage coefficients for the endogenous sec tors. The effluent data were obtained primarily from permit applications submitted by Rhode Is land firms to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Some were from appropriate industries studied in other regions of the country. The economic model was constructed by updating, expanding and resectoring an earlier input-output model of the greater metropolitan Providence area. The study concludes that much as the multiplier effects caused by economic interdependencies are of critical importance in regional economic development, so are the waste products generated by these interdependencies of substantial importance to the regional ecology. Upon reflection, it is not surprising that this should be so. However, recognition of these "waste multipliers" seems even less widespread in local and state economic development circles than is the general recognition of the pervasive role played by economic interdependencies. The policy implication is that the cost savings in pollution control or, conversely, the abatement effect of a given public outlay may be significantly increased by selective rather than by broad controls. These gains or savings to society may be great enough to overcome the political difficulties associated with selective controls. The results of this study suggest that if a particular residual poses a severe threat to water quality in the Bay, then highly discriminatory measures can be very beneficial in reducing its outflow. In summary, this study cannot provide solutions to problems of determining optimum economic growth and waste treatment systems. For this, additional data are needed such as treatment cost and effectiveness of various systems, and an economic-ecological model which is dynamic and which incorporates treatment systems.
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Sea Grant Document Number:RIU-T-73-006
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Rights Information:Public Domain
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