NRPC Leads: Christopher
Clark and William
Park
Funding Source: U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency
Project Description
The principal objective of this research is to evaluate
the potential of water quality trading to achieve water quality
standards for nitrates, siltation, nutrients and/or organic
enrichment/low dissolved oxygen for impaired waters in the
State of Tennessee. This evaluation will focus on the availability
and spatial location of potential market participants, both
point and non-point.
Information on impaired waters will be obtained from 303(d)
and 305(b) reports. Information on point sources will be obtained
from NPDES permits and Discharge Monitoring Reports accessed
via EPA’s Permit Compliance System. Information on non-point
sources will be derived from geo-spatial databases (including
digitized soil, land use, and property tax parcel maps) and
agricultural census data. Watershed-specific inventories of
potential participants will be formulated to identify those
watersheds which appear to have sufficient point and non-point
sources discharging for a trading program to allow impaired
waters to meet existing water quality standards. For the watersheds
meeting this criterion, the project will assess the actual
or estimated marginal abatement costs to determine whether
there are differences that can be exploited by a trading program.
The project will allow policymakers to evaluate whether water
quality trading is a cost-effective means of addressing water
quality impairments in Tennessee. More particularly, the project
will identify: (i) those impairments that are most and least
suitable to water quality trading; (ii) the potential cost
savings associated with a trading program both for one or
more individual watersheds and for the State as a whole; and
(iii) elements of the design and implementation of a water
trading program that are likely to have a significant effect
on the effectiveness of such a program. |
