Healthy forests play an integral role in maintaining high quality source waters. There are many examples of communities investing in forests as a means to protecting water quality.

DWSPP Projects

• Forest Cover Impacts on Drinking Water Utility Treatment Costs in a Large Watershed

Source Water Protection Investment Guides

• World Resources Institute – Investing in Forested Landscapes for Source Water Protection in the United States
• Water Research Foundation – Source Water Protection Cost/Benefit Tool

Ecosystem Services Decision-making Tools

• Integrated Valuation of Environmental Services and Tradeoffs (InVEST)

Research

• Dearmont, D., McCarl, B. A., & Tolman, D. A. (1998). Costs of water treatment due to diminished water quality: A case study in Texas. Water Resources Research, 34(4), 849–853. doi:10.1029/98WR00213
• Forster, D. Lynn, Bardos, C. P., & Southgate, D. D. (1987). Soil erosion and water treatment costs. Journal of Soil and Water Conservation, 42(5), 349–352.
• Forster, D. L., & Murray, C. (2001). Effects of Farming Practices and Land Use on Community Water Treatment Costs (pdf). (No. AEDE-FR-0003). Ohio State University Department of Agricultural, Environmental, and Developmental Economics.
• Freeman, J., Madsen, R., & Hart, K. (2008). Statistical Analysis of Drinking Water Treatment Plant Costs, Source Water Quality, and Land Cover Characteristics. Trust for Public Land.
• Holmes, T. P. (1988). The offsite impact of soil erosion on the water treatment industry. Land Economics, 64(4), 356–366.

Case Studies

• Pennsylvania – Schuylkill Action Network’s Priority Lands Strategy
• Virginia – Rivanna Forests to Faucets Initiative: Payments for Watershed Services and the Optimum Infrastructure Expenditure (OIE) Version I System (pdf)
• North Carolina – Upper Neuse River, Raleigh (pdf)
• South Carolina – Sustainable Finance Strategies for Watershed Protection, Greenville (pdf)
• Maine – An Assessment of the Economics of Natural and Built Infrastructure for Water Resources (pdf)
• Connecticut – Estimating Potential Costs of Watershed Development on Drinking Water Treatment (pdf)
• Rhode Island
  • Rhode Island Forest Resources Assessment and Strategies (pdf)
  • Scituate Reservoir Watershed Property – Forest Stewardship Plan (pdf)
  • Scituate Reservoir Source Water Assessment (pdf)
  • Aquidneck Island Drinking Water Assessment Results (pdf)