The Impact of Motor Vehicle Transportation on Water Quality

Final Report

For the period August 1, 2001 – December 31, 2002

Principal Investigator:

Jean Daniel Saphores, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor

Urban and Regional Planning Department, and Institute of Transportation Studies

University of California

Irvine, CA 92697

Tel: (949) 824-7334; Fax: (949) 824-8566

Email: saphores@uci.edu

Funded by a UCTC 2001-2002 Research Grant

Abstract: This research analyzes the impact of road transportation by motor vehicles on water quality in California. We review the engineering, planning, and economic literatures; collect information about relevant policies at the federal, state, and local levels; quantify pollution impacts whenever possible (with a special focus on leaking underground storage tanks and highway runoff); identify data gaps; and critically review the policies that have been proposed to deal with this problem. Better understanding sources of water pollution is important at a time where the population of California is growing and there are few options for new supplies of water.

Key findings. Using a 7% discount rate, our estimates of the present value of costs for cleaning up leaking underground storage tanks and for controlling highway runoff for major arterials range from $45 billion to $235 billion. Runoff control costs approximately dominate leaking underground storage tank cleanup costs by an order of magnitude. Our review of applicable measures suggests that effective policies should combine economic incentives, information campaigns, and enforcement measures, coupled with preventive environmental measures. Better still, they should foster the integration of environmental considerations in the design of motor vehicles and their infrastructure as recommended for example by Graedel and Allenby (1998) because addressing environmental problems after-the-fact is often more costly than preventing them.

Work Completed:

We have:

• Conducted a review of the economic, planning, and transportation literatures;
• Contacted Local, and Federal to collect data, and we have explored the Internet for information available in OECD countries.
• Quantified the impacts of motor vehicles operation on water quality.
• Evaluated the cleanup costs of leaking underground storage tanks; and
• Quantified the costs of controlling highway runoff in the United States using various best management practices (BMPs).
• Presented our results at a number of conferences; and
• Written a paper published in the conference proceeding of the 2002 ICTTS; and
• Written another papers, which is currently under review.

Papers to Date:

Nixon, H. and J.-D. Saphores (2002). “Used Oil Policies to Protect the Environment: An Overview of Canadian Experiences,” ASCE Proceedings of ICTTS 2002, edited by K. Wang, G. Xiao, L. Nie, and H. Yang.

Nixon, H. and J.-D. Saphores (2002). “The Environmental Impacts of Motor Vehicle Operation on Water Quality: A Preliminary Assessment,” Working Paper, University of California Irvine.

Conferences Presentations:

• Greening XI, Los Angeles, CA, January 26, 2002.
• University of California Transportation Center Student Conference, Berkeley, CA January 31-February 1, 2002.
• “Used Oil Policies to Protect the Environment: An Overview of Canadian Experiences Paper”, paper presented by Hilary Nixon at the Third International Conference on Transportation and Traffic Studies, ICTTS 2002, Guilin, China, July 23-25, 2002.
• “The Environmental Impacts of Motor Vehicle Operation on Water Quality: A preliminary assessment,” presentation by Hilary Nixon at the ACSP 2002 Annual Conference, November 21-24, in Baltimore, MD.
• “The Environmental Impacts of Motor Vehicle Operation on Water Quality: A preliminary assessment,” poster presentation by Hilary Nixon at the APPAM Fall Research Conference, Dallas, TX, November 7-9, 2002.
•  “The Environmental Impacts of Motor Vehicle Operation on Water Quality: A preliminary assessment for California,” poster presentation by Hilary Nixon at the 9th Annual UCTC Conference, Los Angeles, CA, January 25, 2003.

Hilary Nixon, a Ph.D. student in the department of Planning, Policy, and Design, was selected to represent UCI at the annual UCTC conference in Los, Angeles, CA, January 25, 2003.