UC Irvine

Environmental studies of motor vehicles typically focus on air pollution or noise, but ignore water pollution. In this paper, we investigate the costs of reversing some of the environmental impacts of motor vehicle transportation on surface waters and groundwater. Our estimates of the cost of cleaning-up leaking underground storage tanks range from $6.5 billion to $19.6 billion, while control costs for highway runoff from major arterials in the United States are an order of magnitude larger (from $45.3 billion to $249 billion, all in 2005 $). Some causes of non-point source pollution were unintentionally created by regulations or could be addressed by changing the design of motor vehicles. Effective clean-up policies should emphasize prevention, coupled with public education, enforcement, and economic incentives. In general, preventing water pollution from motor vehicles would be much cheaper than cleaning it up.