Draft EPA Memoranda Provide Bay States With Guidance on Nutrient Trading, Offsets

摘要

The states sharing the Chesapeake Bay watershed could establish nutrient trading programs that in certain cases offer trading on a 1:1 credit ratio between point sources and nonpoint sources, under one of two draft Environmental Protection Agency guidance documents on nutrient trading that are now open for public comment. Trading between nonpoint nutrient sources such as farms and point sources such as sewage plants would in most cases be subject to 2:1 credit ratio, meaning that a wastewater treatment plant would need to purchase two agricultural pollution reduction credits to claim one point source credit.