Measuring the Recreational and Amenity Values Affected by Toxic Cyanobacteria: A Contingent Valuation Study of Rutland Water, Leicestershire

In most cases, where expenditure is directed towards water quality improvements, the prime driving force is the achievement of a quality criterion, or standard. Legal standards may be incorporated in international agreements, such as those related to the North Sea (Pearson, 1995), in EC Directives (CEC, 1978, 1980, 1991), in consented determinants (NRA, 1994), or in Statutory Water Quality Objectives (NRA, 1991). Alternatively, informal (non-Legal) standards can be used for water quality management purposes, but in such cases all interested parties such as the Environmental Regulator, the industrialist, the sewage discharger or the farmer must support and accept such standards before realistic progress can be made. The considerable costs associated with improving the quality of the water environment has thus put policy-makers under increasing pressure to provide an economic justification for setting standards at particular levels. These developments engendered a growing commitment within the National Rivers Authority (NRA), from 1996 part of the Environment Agency (EA), to the principle of cost-benefit analysis, in order to ensure that:- a) new environmental obligations were based upon a proper consideration of the associated costs and benefits; and b) once standards had been set, schemes could be prioritised on economic grounds.