U.
S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Christie Whitman
has announced a new Water Quality Trading Policy to cut industrial, municipal
and agricultural discharges into the nation’s waterways. The trading
policy seeks to support and encourage states and tribes in developing
and putting into place water quality trading programs that implement the
requirements of the Clean Water and federal regulations in more flexible
ways and reduce the cost of improving and maintaining the quality of the
nation's waters. The policy will help increase the pace and success of
cleaning up impaired rivers, streams and lakes throughout the country.
“The Water Quality Trading Policy I am announcing today recognizes
that within a watershed, the most effective and economical way to reduce
pollution is to provide incentives to encourage action by those who can
achieve reductions easily and cost-effectively,” said EPA Administrator
Christie Whitman. “Our new Water Quality Trading Policy will result
in cleaner water, at less cost, and in less time. It provides the flexibility
needed to meet local challenges while demanding accountability to ensure
that water quality does improve.”
"Trading can be a cheaper answer to solving water quality problems
in the United States and around the world," said Paul Faeth, managing
director of World Resources Institute. "It creates a win-win solution
for everyone involved and the new policy will allow states and others
to take advantage of the newly created conservation innovation grants
program in the 2002 Farm Bill."
“The States recognize the short and long term benefits of the
approaches by EPA and are pleased that the Agency has formalized an effective
Trading Policy. The Association of State and Interstate Water Pollution
Control Administrators (ASIWPCA) is enthusiastic about the potential for
trading or exchanging pollutant credits. The process outlined by EPA provides
greater flexibility to the States in addressing extremely complex pollution
problems; can result in significant cost savings; provides an opportunity
to regulate pollutants on a watershed basis; and accelerates pollutant
reduction efforts,” said Roberta (Robbi) Savage, Executive Director
of ASWIPCA.
"This policy will provide market-based incentives to encourage
America's farmers, ranchers and woodlot owners and operators to do even
more to maintain and improve the quality of our environment," said
Natural Resources Conservation Service Chief Bruce Knight. "The conservation
programs in the 2002 Farm Bill will help farmers and ranchers improve
water quality."
Whitman noted that the agency is providing more than $800,000 in fiscal
year 2002 funding support for technical and other support for 11 trading
projects around the country. A list of the 11 pilots is attached.
"Trading can be an important tool for states like Connecticut as
we clean up our waters. Working with New York, Connecticut has spearheaded
the efforts to keep the Long Island Sound clean. This assistance from
the EPA will help Connecticut to continue to improve the Sound's water
quality," said Connecticut Governor John G. Rowland.
Water quality trading uses economic incentives to improve water quality.
It allows one source to meet its regulatory obligations by using pollutant
reductions created by another source that has lower pollution control
costs. The standards remain the same, but efficiency is increased and
costs are decreased. Under the policy announced today, industrial and
municipal facilities would first meet technology control requirements
and then could use pollution reduction credits to make further progress
towards water quality goals.
In order for a water quality trade to take place, a pollution reduction
"credit" must first be created. EPA’s water quality trading
policy states that sources should reduce pollution loads beyond the level
required by the most stringent water quality based requirements in order
to create a pollution reduction "credit" that can be traded.
For example, a landowner or a farmer could create credits by changing
cropping practices and planting shrubs and trees next to a stream. A municipal
wastewater treatment plant then could use these credits to meet water
quality limits in its permit.
Joining Whitman at today’s press conference were: Bruce Knight,
Chief, Natural Resources Conservation Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture;
Paul Faeth, Executive Vice President and Managing Director, World Resources
Institute (WRI); Thomas Morrissey, Director of Planning and Standards,
Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection and Immediate Past
President, Association of State and Interstate Water Pollution Control
Administrators; and Thomas R. “Buddy” Morgan, General Manager,
Water Works and Sanitary Sewer Board, Montgomery, Al., and Board Vice
President of the Association of Metropolitan Sewerage Agencies.
The policy could save the public hundreds of millions of dollars by advancing
more effective, efficient partnerships to clean up and protect watersheds.
The policy encourages incentives to maintain high water quality where
it exists as well as restoring impaired waters. In addition, the policy
describes provisions of credible trading programs that are consistent
with the Clean Water Act and federal regulations.
An independent study of three watersheds in Minnesota, Michigan and
Wisconsin looked at the cost of controlling phosphorous loadings.(World
Resources Institute 2000) This study found that the cost of reducing phosphorous
from controlling point sources - traditional pipe-in-the water dischargers
regulated by the Clean Water Act - to be considerably higher than those
based on trading between point and non-point sources which are not regulated
by the Clean Water Act.
For more information log on to EPA’s Trading website at http://www.epa.gov/owow/watershed/trading.htm.
Water Quality Trading Projects
In addition to releasing its final policy on water quality trading, EPA
is supporting 11 trading projects to address a range of water quality
challenges across the country. EPA supplied over $800,000 in fiscal year
2002 funding support and EPA Regional offices are providing technical
and other support to the projects.
Trading to Reduce Nitrogen Loads in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed
- Conestoga River, PA. A project to reduce nitrogen loads in
a Chesapeake Bay tributary and strive for additional environmental benefits
such as creation of habitat.
Create an Electronic Marketplace for Nutrient Trading in Chesapeake
Bay. Develop an internet-based board of trade for nitrogen trading
in the Chesapeake Bay watershed, with the potential to be adapted for
other watersheds.
Outreach on Trading to the Agricultural Community. Through
a partnership with the National Association of Conservation Districts,
provide information to extension agents and agricultural producers on
the concept, mechanics and potential benefits of water quality trading.
Trading to Reduce Selenium Loads to the Lower Colorado River.
Develop trading framework aimed at reducing high selenium levels in tributaries
to the Lower Colorado River requiring a Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL).
Selenium loads in the tributaries come from point sources and (mainly)
nonpoint sources such as irrigation flows.
First-Year Assessment of Nitrogen Trading in Connecticut.
Evaluate the first year’s implementation of a trading program among
79 wastewater treatment plants to meet a nitrogen TMDL in Long Island
Sound. Project will assess nitrogen reductions achieved, the utility of
a watershed permit used for the 79 facilities, and the potential for expanding
the program to include nonpoint sources.
Trading to Reduce Impacts from Urban and Agricultural Runoff
near Montgomery, Alabama. Project to explore trading’s
potential to reduce sediment pollution and create additional environmental
benefits in the Coosa and/or Tallapaloosa Rivers.
Pilot Feasibility Assessment of Trading to Reduce Mercury Loads
to the Sacramento River. The Sacramento Regional Wastewater Treatment
Plant has a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit
that requires the plant to develop a proposal for reducing mercury discharges
to the watershed from sources that are either not regulated or cannot
be readily controlled. This pilot project supports the Sacramento Regional
Country Sanitation District’s efforts to assess the feasibility
of achieving net reductions in mercury loadings through such offset actions.
Increasing In-Stream Flow in the Upper Charles River Watershed,
MA. This project seeks innovative ways to address problems of
water quality and reduced in-stream flow in the Charles River by exploring
the option of wastewater treatment plants taking actions upstream to increase
groundwater recharge and decrease stormwater runoff in lieu of increasing
treatment capacity downstream.
Evaluate Feasibility of Reducing Acid Mine Drainage in the Cheat
River, WV. This stakeholder-driven project will assess the potential
for trading to achieve greater reductions in acid mine drainage pollution
than would be achieved under current NPDES permits through actions to
abate drainage from abandoned mines. Project outcomes will be tied to
improved ecological conditions in the Cheat River.
Nitrogen Trading in the Neuse River Basin, NC. Establishment
of operational guidelines for a trading program to reduce nitrogen loads
from a group of wastewater treatment plants to meet a TMDL.
Pilot Trading Framework for State of Wisconsin. Development
of a trading framework that the State may use to guide development of
future nutrient trading programs in Wisconsin.
Monday,
January 13, 2002
