Human interactions with the environment can be described with ten basic environmental values: aesthetic, domionistic, ecologistic, humanistic, moralistic, naturalistic, negativitic, scientific, symbolic, and utilitarian (Kellert, 1996). These values persist because they confer adaptive benefits; however, culture and education may influence their manifestation. Economics can be used to assess the monetary value humans place on the environment. In this paper, the contingent-valuation method is considered as a methodology to measure peoples’ willingness-to-pay for incremental water quality improvements in the West River watershed in Connecticut. This paper considers the potential flaws of this methodology and attempts to address these flaws in a contingent-valuation survey. Ultimately, this survey will be administered to residents along a gradient of socioeconomic conditions and water quality to measure their environmental values and economic valuation for water quality improvements. The results of this survey will be used to examine the correlation between the strength of particular environmental values and changing willingness-to-pay estimates. This analysis will be the first documented effort to measure the interaction between social-psychological and economic valuation techniques. This interdisciplinary study will rely on the combined advancements of economics, sociology, and biology.