Research Symposium

BIO

Ashira Casanova is a Florida State undergraduate student majoring in Public Health. Ashira has been involved as a student researcher at FSU’s DeVoe Moore center also known as Florida States' public policy research institute under the direction of Dr. Crystal Taylor. Ashira’s research interest encompasses multi-disciplinary fields such as public health, economics, and stem sciences in hopes of finding market-oriented solutions to critical public concerns. Ashira’s research project aims to uncover water quality issues presented pre and post-pandemic while utilizing the literary analysis to aid as a factor in predicting water quality standards within the United States.

Water Quality and Economic Development: A Review of Time Series Methodologies

Abstract

Wastewater treatment plants use biochemical oxygen to help clean our reclaimed, industrial, and domestic water supply. The United States is expected to see a rise in biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) from industrial, manufacturing firms, and agricultural production during 2021-2022 by nearly one percent. Moreover, there were over four hundred more National Pollution Discharge Elimination System facility permits purchased during the same timeframe. Interestingly, regulators have raised the maximum allowed point source chemical pollutants for permit holders. As a result of the poorer water quality standards, sewage treatment plants require more biochemical oxygen to combat water pollution. In an attempt to uncover and analyze the literature addressing water quality issues, this research asks, “Which model best fits the hypothesized relationship between biochemical oxygen demand and gross domestic product (also known as the Kuznets Curve hypothesis)? Drawing from economic development, environmental, and public health literature, key scholars suggest the 1995 Grossman and Krueger linear regression model best fits the hypothesized relationship and presented the generalized least squares as the recommended technique. In terms of policy recommendations, preparing future researchers with statistical training and proper techniques are precursory steps in addressing today's water quality crisis as well as a call for reformation of the 1972 National Pollution Discharge Elimination System program under the Clean Water Act. Rather than an overarching broad policy, applying acreage and pollutant standards at the local level could decrease the amount of needed BOD needed to combat water pollution in the United States.

Keywords: water quality, review time series