Water Quality Trading

Water quality trading is an innovative program that allows facilities that discharge wastewater to a stream or river to meet regulatory obligations by:

• Purchasing equivalent or larger pollution reductions from another source; or
• Taking action to protect or restore riparian areas, wetlands, floodplains, and aquatic habitat to reduce the impact of pollutants.

Trading is based on the fact that dischargers in a watershed can face very different costs to control the same pollutant. Trading programs allow facilities facing higher pollution control costs to meet their regulatory obligations by purchasing environmentally equivalent (or superior) pollution reductions from another source at lower cost, thus achieving the same water quality improvement at lower overall cost. Trading may also allow Oregon to achieve water quality improvements more quickly than would otherwise be possible.

December 2009 Update to Water Quality Trading Internal Management Directive (IMD) NEW Water Quality Trading Fact Sheet PDF NEW Reports and Permits

Tools Resources Frequently Asked Questions

Water Quality Trading in National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) Permits IMD

In December 2009, DEQ updated its guidance on water quality trading to encourage and expand the use of water quality trading in Oregon. The purpose of the updated guidance, which is formally known as an internal management directive or IMD, is to provide DEQ staff with a consistent framework for evaluating water quality trades implemented through the NPDES permit program. The IMD will also provide interested parties with information on the DEQ process for evaluating trading opportunities.

The update to the IMD clarified that it is focused on NPDES permittees because DEQ expects the majority of trading activity to be driven by the need to comply with total maximum daily load (TMDL) wasteload allocations or other requirements in NPDES permits, such as mass load limitations.  However, it may be used as a framework for trading in other situations.  Please see the IMD for more details.

• Water Quality Trading IMD PDF NEW

Reports and Permits

• Clean Water Services Revised Temperature Management Plan - This site also contains related reporting
• Clean Water Services Watershed-based Permit - Credit trading has been incorporated into this permit

• Water Quality Credit Trading in Oregon: A Case Study Report PDF

If you have questions about the reports and permits, contact Sonja Biorn-Hansen at (503) 229-5257 or by e-mail.

Tools

• Shade-a-lator ZIP
  DEQ's Shade-A-Lator model v6.2 may be used to calculate effective shade. It is a solar routing model built into an Excel spreadsheet that runs on a combination of indicators gathered from GIS and from the field to calculate the temperature credits received from riparian shade restoration.

Resources

EPA Resources

• EPA Water Quality Trading Home Page
• EPA Water Quality Trading Policy (2003)
• EPA Region 10 Water Quality Trading Initiative

Other Water Quality Trading Resources

• Environmental Trading Network - A national clearinghouse for water quality trading projects
• Willamette Partnership - Water Temperature Trading

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