| The pollution of groundwater as a result of intensive agriculture has become a major concern for rural areas. This thesis examines the relative cost-effectiveness of implementing a buy and lease policy and a nitrogen standard policy as a means of reducing nitrate concentration from agricultural sources at the Thornton production wells, located in the County of Oxford, Ontario. In order to find the minimum social cost of implementing these two policies, two models are developed, the buy and lease model and the nitrogen standard model. Both models involve a linear programming technique. After simulating each policy for the Thornton Well Field and applying the two models it is evident that the buy and lease policy is more cost-effective. The results also show how optimal implementation of each policy reflects the agricultural productivity of various fields along with physical parameters of the aquifer, such as time of travel and infiltration rates. |
