How To Charge Developers For The Environmental Destruction They Cause
(Page 2 of 3)
May/June 1971
By Robert W. Ramsey
In February, 1970, the Washington House of Representatives adopted a document preserving Nisqually Delta—but accepted a reservation promoted by a commerce-minded group saying this not be "inconsistent with the industrial development of said delta." This left the gate open to anything.
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Since that time our application of the Landscape Destruction Value Doctrine has shown this land to have a destruction value of over $40,000,000. We have done our homework, supported by the National Audubon Society and local citizens groups determined that this delta shall not go down the development drain as usual and that new thinking and actions are needed to reverse development trend-line processes.
We have carefully established the destruction value of all components of this landscape, except the underwater habitat, used comparable values wherever available, and tallied up the total.
For example, ground cover. On the Delta land for which the Port has plans, about 625 acres would be covered under many feet of gravel. Accepting only grasses lost, we figure the minimum cost of destruction would be $196,000. Another 300 acres would be stripped for gravel, killing ground cover on some 200 acres which would cost about $4500 per acre to replace, or another $900,000. Thus our statement for loss of ground cover comes to $1,097,000.
Trees: the National Shade Tree Conference has established the basic value of trees at $9 per square inch of the cross-section at 4 1/2 feet above grade. For this reforested area, we assume 10 trees of 6" diameter for every 1,000 square feet over 300 acres on this site, giving a tree destruction value of $6,657,000.
View: the loss of view value would be large, estimated at $4,000 per lot for 370 sites on the west and 160 sites on the east. Total view loss is $2,120,000.
Soil: The Port proposes to cover 1,200 acres of usable soil. Assuming 625 acres excavated 3' deep for topsoil, or 3,025,000 cubic yards at 25 cents, this adds a destruction payment for soils of $756,000.
Gas exchange: The loss of CO 2 reduction capability can be estimated by noting that one acre of green space removes an average of approximately 30 cu. ft. of CO 2 from the atmosphere daily. Assigning a 50-year life to the project, we figure the loss of CO 2 deduction capacity is at $215,350 per year over 925 acre affected, or $10,768,000 over the life of the project the project.
