Read the February 22, 2012 New York Times article Mutated Trout Raise New Concer

Question

Read the February 22, 2012 New York Times article Mutated Trout Raise New
Concerns Near Mine Sites. The article has been posted to Blackboard as
Homework_4_Article.pdf.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/23/science/earth/mutated-trout-raise-new-concerns-over-selenium.html?pagewanted=all

a. Describe the pollutant in question? Is this a point source or nonpoint
source pollutant?
b. Imagine you are hired by the Greater Yellowstone Coalition, a local
conservation group, as an economic consultant to determine the estimated
cost of damages caused by the pollutant. How would you determine the
damages? How would you enforce payment?
c. Imagine you are hired by the J.R. Simplot Company, the mining company,
as an economic consultant to determine the estimated cost of damages
caused by the pollutant. How would you determine the damages? How
would expect your estimate to differ from that of the economic consultant
hired by the Greater Yellowstone Coalition? Should the estimates differ?

Explanation / Answer

A. The pollutant in question, Selenium, is being released by Simplot as a result of their mining activity and therefore it is point source pollutant. Selenium is a natural occurring compound that has to be disturbed to become toxic. Therefore the activities that Simplot company is engaging in are the one source that is causing the pollution. B. If I was hired as an economic consultant by the Greater Yellowstone coalition I would use measurements of the levels of selenium in fish tissue (since that is what federal agencies have determined is the best reference) to prepare estimates of damages. Once we establish the levels of selenium we can compare it to the baseline safety levels that the Superfund has determined and the difference will be the released selenium variance which Simplot is liable for. From there I would look at look to make an injury determination of any victims (the fish), quantification of the effects on the victims, and finally damage estimation. Once we have data on how much wildlife or humans were affected and to what extent we can estimate an economic value due to those injuries. C. If I was hired as an economic consultant for J.R. Simplot I would use the same strategy. The only exception is subsequently, I would focus on the companies activities and what they are doing to monitor the pollution and clean up it's efforts. If we can prove that sufficient precautionary measures were put in place prior to the pollution (is Simplot spent millions of dollars to clean up the site) than we can argue that damages should not be due to J.R. Simplot's negligence because of their due diligence. The estimates of damages should be the same, the total liability may differ.

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