Ohio River Basin Trading Project
Water quality trading is an innovative market-based approach to
achieving water quality goals for nutrients such as phosphorus and
nitrogen through programs that allow permitted emitters to purchase
nutrient reductions from another source. Control costs for any one
nutrient can differ from one emitter to another, and water quality
trading provides an option for meeting discharge requirements in a
cost-effective manner. Properly designed and deployed, the proposed
trading program in the Ohio River Basin will allow exchanges of
water quality credits for nitrogen and phosphorus. The outcome will be
protecting and improving watersheds at lower overall costs. This will
be a regional interstate trading project and represents a
comprehensive approach to designing and developing credit markets
for nitrogen and phosphorus.
EPRI’s
Jessica Fox
(PDF 34KB)
leads this effort in collaboration with power companies, federal
and state agencies, agricultural organizations, academia, the
private sector and other industry organizations.
Project Approach
Impacts on water quality in the Ohio River Basin come from many
sources including power plants, wastewater treatment plants, urban
stormwater, agriculture, and even from sources outside of the Basin.
Due to the many sources of impacts and high nutrient loading in
some Basin areas, improving water quality will require
collaboration among national and state agencies, power plants,
wastewater treatment plants, farmers, environmental groups, and
others. In addition, coordinated efforts among state, regional and
federal regulatory agencies are critical to address how interstate
trading will occur.
Decisions regarding program design, timing, and rules will be made
with input from the above mentioned stakeholder. The design
of the program will also need to consider existing state trading
rules and policies and existing watershed trading programs.
