Countervailing effects of atrazine on water recreation: How do recreators evaluate them?

Abstract

This paper examines the countervailing effects of atrazine on water recreational choices. The presence of atrazine in waterbodies potentially reduces the symptoms of eutrophication, which is a condition of low water quality due to nutrient enrichment. Eutrophication frequently undermines recreational enjoyment and diminishes recreational use of affected waterbodies. Thus increased atrazine concentrations could induce greater recreation. However, atrazine also potentially decreases the mass and size of fish populations; this loss potentially reduces recreational use. To examine empirically these countervailing effects on recreational use, this study gathers and generates data on actual recreation under initial water quality conditions and stated recreation under hypothetical quality conditions, which vary eutrophication-related and fish-related quality independently and jointly. This economic study uses a travel cost framework and the associated contingent behavior framework to analyze these data.