Valuing acid mine drainage remediation in West Virginia: benefit transfer with preference calibration

Several thousand kilometers of West Virginia streams are degraded by acid mine drainage, and the estimates for cleanup range in the billions of dollars (US$). This article demonstrates the use of a nonmarket valuation technique, benefit transfer, to estimate the benefits of restoring an impaired region of the Cheat River Watershed in West Virginia. Second, we compare two benefit transfer tools that can be used for making decisions about restoration under constrained budgets. We find the annual value of remediation in a two-county region to be between $1.4 and $8.9 million, depending on the estimating model. The results from our research demonstrate the challenges involved in applying benefit transfer to a policy site, as well as the differences in outcome between a simple unit transfer technique and a new preference calibration benefit transfer technique. Copyright Springer Japan 2007