EPA Water Quality Trading Evaluation: Final Report

EPA Water Quality Trading Evaluation -- Final Report, October 2008

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...

Management Areas and Fixed Costs in the Economics of Water Quality Trading

Hung and Shaw’s (2005) trading-ratio system is modified to accommodate a management area approach wherein emissions sources are organized by impacts on identified “hot spots” and trading accounts for fixed as well as variable costs. An empirical example of phosphorus trading in a watershed with 22 potential traders demonstrates that marginal cost trading using a trading-ratio system yield nomin...

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...

Development and Use of Distributions of Pesticide Concentrations in Drinking Water for FQPA Exposure Assessments: A Consultation

The EPA Office of Pesticide Programs (OPP) is proposing to build on its existing approaches for estimating pesticide concentrations in drinking water as part of its assessment of dietary exposures to pesticides. The purpose of this consultation is to provide a progress report to and seek advice from the Scientific Advisory Panel (SAP) on the latest effort to further develop the methodology for ...