Quick Link to
Water
Quality Pollutant Trading in Idaho:
A Step-by-Step Agricultural Community Guidebook
An interactive
Web site for agricultural operators in Idaho
Contact DEQ
Regional
Office
Water Quality Managers
Marti Bridges
DEQ State Office
Water Quality Division
(208) 373-0382
marti.bridges@deq.idaho.gov
Contact EPA
Claire
Schary
U.S. EPA Region
10
schary.claire@epa.gov
ph: (206) 553-8514
or
1-800-424-4EPA
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Wastewater:
Pollutant Trading Overview
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| Background |
| Pollutant trading
is a business-like way of helping to improve water quality by focusing
on cost-effective, local solutions to problems caused by pollutant
discharges to surface waters. Pollutant trading is voluntary and generally
involves a party facing relatively high pollutant reduction costs
who compensates another party to achieve an equivalent, though less
costly, pollutant reduction. Parties trade only if both are better
off as a result of the trade. Trading allows parties to decide how
best to reduce pollutant loadings within the limits of certain guidelines.
The appeal of trading emerges when pollutant sources face substantially
different pollutant reduction costs. The
major components of a pollutant trading system are:
- trading parties (buyers and sellers);
- a commodity (a pollutant such as phosphorus);
- credits or measurable amounts of a commodity
to trade; and
- ratios to ensure environmental equivalency of
trades in a watershed.
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| Pollutant Trading in Idaho |
Under
Idaho’s Water Quality Standards (IDAPA
58.01.02.054.06), pollutant trading may be conducted in conjunction
with the development of water quality management plans known as
Total
Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs) that are designed to restore water
quality-limited water bodies to compliance with water quality standards.
During
the past several years, DEQ and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s
(EPA) Region 10, which includes Idaho, have been exploring the use
of pollutant trading as a means of meeting water quality goals.
Specifically, the agencies have looked at trading in the Lower Boise
River watershed, primarily between point sources and nonpoint sources,
and on the Middle Snake River between two point sources. In 2000,
DEQ, EPA, and interested stakeholders recommended that a trading
system be incorporated into the Lower Boise River TMDL and into
NPDES (National Pollutant Elimination Discharge System) permits.
Model permit language for a hypothetical trade on the Middle Snake
River was developed in 2003.
Link to
Lower Boise River Effluent Trading Demonstration Project
documents:
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Pollutant
Trading Guidance for Idaho |
Moving
toward implementing pollutant trading in Idaho, DEQ has developed
a draft Pollutant Trading Guidance document outlining the procedures
for conducting pollutant trading to improve water quality. The draft
document specifies the conditions under which pollutant trading
may take place, establishes record keeping and reporting procedures,
and prescribes how Best Management Practices (BMPs) are to be developed
for each watershed in which pollutant trading occurs. In addition,
the guidance document includes appendices establishing pollutant
trading BMPs and trading ratios for the Lower Boise River and ratios
for the Middle Snake River.
Public
comment on the draft Pollutant Trading Guidance document and provisions
of two federal water quality permits authorizing the purchase and
sale of pollutant credits was accepted December 3, 2003 - March
5, 2004.
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| Step-by-Step Agricultural Community
Guidebook and Web Site |
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To assist the agricultural community in understanding how pollutant
trading works and how this practice may benefit agricultural operators
in Idaho, a step-by-step guidebook and Web site have been developed
through the cooperative efforts of DEQ, U.S. EPA Region 10, the
Idaho Soil Conservation Commission, the Idaho Water User’s
Association, the Natural Resource Conservation Service, and the
U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.
Using
the Lower Boise River marketplace as an example, the guidebook and
Web site provide an example-based, step-by-step guide to how an
agricultural operator can trade with an industrial or municipal
facility that holds a water quality permit.
Note:
The guidebook and Web site provide the same information in different
formats. Access the guidebook in pdf format to print the document.
Link to the Web site to view the information online.
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| For More Information |
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