This appendix focuses upon economic costs. Although economic costs can be expressed in many different ways, a useful statistic is the economic cost per acre-foot of option delivery. The mathematical computation of unit cost is not difficult, but does entail several considerations. Considerations Common to All Options Data Availability Cost estimates require extensive data on an option's costs and its operation under different hydrologic conditions. Costs include capital and annual operations, maintenance, and replacement costs.
Some options can provide a relatively constant supply regardless of water year type.
Because this Bulletin focuses on local options, cost estimates are dependent upon cost and hydrology data available in existing reports and other documents prepared by water agencies. Since the Bulletin's intent is to examine options from a statewide perspective at an appraisal level of detail, the approach used has been to acknowledge that these difficulties exist, but to use the available information. The scope of this Bulletin does not permit development of new information for all of the options for which data were collected. The Bulletin's efforts focused on making costs of the statewide options and larger local options comparable, where possible. The analysis used constant dollars, thus excluding price changes occurring as a result of inflation.