Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

This report documents a project undertaken for the California Urban Water Conservation Council (the Council) to create a new method of accounting for the diverse environmental benefits of raw water savings. The environmental benefits (EB) model was designed to provide water utilities with a practical tool that they can use to assign a monetary value to the benefits that may accrue from implementing any of the Council-recommended Best Management Practices. The model treats only environmental services associated directly with water, and is intended to cover miscellaneous impacts that are not currently accounted for in any other cost-benefit analysis.