Expand, relocate, or underground? Social acceptance of upgrading wastewater treatment plants

Securing a moderate level of social acceptance for obnoxious facilities, public facilities that have negative effects, such as odors, noise, or other disruptions, is critical to infrastructure plans. For wastewater treatment plant (WWTP), also obnoxious facilities, upgrading and expanding the capacity of existing WWTP, are more important than the construction of new plants, in some regions. This study analyzes and compares the social acceptance of different types of WWTP upgrades and capacity expansion projects. Contingent valuation method is used to elicit South Korean households’ willingness to pay (WTP) for preventing the expansion of a WWTP. The aggregated WTP is interpreted from the perspective of social conflict costs. The results show that the annual mean WTP of South Korean households to prevent WWTP expansion ranges from KRW 32,058 (US $27.61) to KRW 45,793 (US $39.44) depending on spatial location, which implies that the social conflict costs for the WWTP expansion in South Korea are considerable. It is also found that an underground WWTP at current site is a best alternative to lower the social conflict costs; it is even better than relocation an existing WWTP to another area. Several related policy implications are provided based on the analysis results.