COST IMPLICATIONS IN ACHIEVING ALTERNATIVE WATER-QUALITY TARGETS

Excessive nutrient loading poses significant water quality problems in many water bodies across the country. An important question that must be addressed when nutrient reduction policies are devised is where nu trient reduction targets will be applied within the watershed. This pa per examines the cost implications of establishing three possible nutr ient reduction targets in different locations along the Fox-Wolf River basin in northeast Wisconsin. A linear programming model calculates t he total cost of achieving a 50% phosphorus load reduction target esta blished in various locations throughout the basin. Two strategies esta blish phosphorus reduction targets for each of the 41 subwatersheds, a nd the third approach establishes a single 50% target reduction at Gre en Bay for the entire watershed. The results indicate that achieving t arget phosphorus reductions at the subwatershed level is over 4 times more expensive than achieving the same percentage phosphorus reduction for the watershed as a whole.