Distributed costs of environmental contamination

Improper disposal of toxic contaminants costs society far more than just cleanup costs. Agency expenses, costs of research and litigation, and resource damages represent additional costs of pollution. These costs are generally borne by the public rather than by the polluter, and are therefore termed ‘distributed’. Two cases of PCB contamination in aquatic systems were analyzed from a distributed-costs perspective: New Bedford Harbor, MA, and the Hudson River, NY. For the cases analyzed, the major distributed cost was the loss of past and future fishery revenues. For the cases analyzed, distributed costs made up from about 40% to 99% of total costs.