Costs of abandoned coal mine reclamation and associated recreation benefits in Ohio

Abstract

Two hundred years of coal mining in Ohio have degraded land and water resources, imposing social costs on its citizens. An interdisciplinary approach employing hydrology, geographic information systems, and a recreation visitation function model, is used to estimate the damages from upstream coal mining to lakes in Ohio. The estimated recreational damages to five of the coal-mining-impacted lakes, using dissolved sulfate as coal-mining-impact indicator, amount to $21 Million per year. Post-reclamation recreational benefits from reducing sulfate concentrations by 6.5% and 15% in the five impacted lakes were estimated to range from $1.89 to $4.92 Million per year, with a net present value ranging from $14.56 Million to $37.79 Million. A benefit costs analysis (BCA) of recreational benefits and coal mine reclamation costs provides some evidence for potential Pareto improvement by investing limited resources in reclamation projects.