Bonnie Keeler Awarded EPA Grant to Study Mississippi River
November 3, 2022

Associate Professor Bonnie Keeler has received a three-year grant from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to research the value of a cleaner Mississippi River. it's one of four recent grants from the EPA that will assess the benefits of water quality improvements, with the goal of informing federal water policy.

Keeler, an expert on water management and policy, is the lead investigator of the $742,000 project, "Investigating the distribution and value of water quality benefits along the Mississippi River." She’s collaborating with researchers from Michigan State University and the University of Washington. 

Traditional economic tools to estimate the benefits of improved water quality often fail to address issues of equity and rely solely on monetary values that overlook important relational and cultural values. So Keeler’s team will seek to understand how different communities perceive the benefits and costs of a changing Mississippi River.