Thesis
The viability of dredging Upper Klamath Lake to mitigate drought impact: a cost-benefit analysis
Washington State University
Master of Science (MS), Washington State University
2011
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/100222
Abstract
This thesis reviews the cost-benefit of dredging Upper Klamath Lake in Southern Oregon as a means to alleviate water stresses in the area. Currently, agricultural users must forego water use during low precipitation years and are compensated for losses by federal government transfers. Curtailments on water use are due to Environmental Protection Agency restrictions on minimum lake level and downstream flow requirements. There are two types of benefits assumed to arise from such a project; the first is that dredging the lake would provide additional water storage for agricultural users during low precipitation years making government transfers unnecessary. The second is an improvement to water quality as a result of increasing lake depth. Benefits to recreational users of the lake are estimated through use of benefits transfer techniques. Soil productivity rates and acreage totals are used to estimate the value of having available irrigation water for agricultural users. The result of this study is a cost-benefit analysis table. The table gives a range of potential estimates based on varying project sizes, interest rates, drought frequencies, and benefits transfer methods. The conclusion of the study is that the net benefit of dredging Upper Klamath Lake would be advantageous in some scenarios but not all.
Metrics
Details
- Title
- The viability of dredging Upper Klamath Lake to mitigate drought impact
- Creators
- Nicholas Sheets
- Contributors
- Jonathan K. Yoder (Degree Supervisor)
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- Economic Sciences, School of
- Theses and Dissertations
- Master of Science (MS), Washington State University
- Publisher
- Washington State University; Pullman, Wash. :
- Identifiers
- 99900525053301842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Thesis