Pollutant trading: Key to better water quality?

Water Quality Trading in Integrated Hydrologic Framework

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been pressing for this type of approach since the promulgation of its Water Quality Trading Policy in 2003, the intent of which is “to encourage voluntary trading programs that facilitate implementation of Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs), reduce the costs of compliance with Clean Water Act regulations, establish incentives for voluntary reduc...

EPA Water Quality Trading Evaluation: Final Report

Crunch Time for Water Quality Trading

Economists have been promoting water quality (WQ) trading for decades. Over the past few years, many political leaders and upper-level government officials have been joining them. Money has even started to flow from Wash-ington to local trading organizations to help make WQ trading work. However, enthusiasm about WQ trading is based mostly on conceptual arguments about its potential to generate...

Reaching the Potential of Water-Quality Trading

In 003 the US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) created a Water Quality Trading Policy consistent with the Clean Water Act of 97 . Building on the successes of the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit program to address point-source discharges and the Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) program, which established watershed pollution loads, water-quality trading was c...

THE CURRENT CONTROVERSY REGARDING TMDLs : POLLUTANT TRADING

Introduction .......................................................................................... . . 10 I. Overview of the CW A ........................................................................ 12 A . G eneral ........................................................................................ . . 12 B. Importance of TMDLs .........................................................