Water Quality Trading Program in the Ohio River Basin

As one of the featured projects in our Agriculture and Environment campaign AFT is collaborating with the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), Kieser & Associates, LLC, Huton & Williams, LLP, and the University of California at Santa Barbara to establish a water quality trading program [pdf] in the Ohio River basin. This regional project provides an example of the positive role agriculture can play in water quality issues.

To address impending regulatory action in the Ohio River basin, the Electric Power Research Institute and its member utility companies recently concluded that the least-cost strategy is to buy nutrient credits from agriculture (both nitrogen and phosphorus). The large size and multi-state scope of this project is unprecedented but will be impossible for states, agencies, point source polluters and agriculture to ignore.

The design of this market will allow it to handle other environmental credits such as carbon credits, and we will use the BMP Challenge to help generate potential sellers in the agricultural sector. In the Maumee River basin, which empties into Lake Erie, AFT has identified a high potential to establish ecosystem services markets, especially sediment credits.

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