The next Rachel Carson Forum on the Future of the Environment on December 15 will examine the potential of water credit trading programs to make improvements in water quality at lower costs

The program will start at noon in the Rachel Carson Building Auditorium in Harrisburg.

The speakers will be Scott Van de Mark of the Pennsylvania Environmental Council and Dr. James Shortle from Penn State University.

Nutrient trading is a tool designed to achieve nutrient pollution reduction goals cost-effectively by allowing pollution sources with high control costs to meet their regulatory obligations by purchasing environmentally equivalent pollution reductions from sources with lower costs.

This program will explore the theory and practice of nutrient trading. The program will also review nutrient trading experience in Pennsylvania on the Conestoga River as well as Pennsylvania’s interim final policy on nutrient and sediment trading.

The Rachel Carson Forum is a monthly speakers series organized by the DEP Office of Policy, the DCNR Office of Conservation Science, and the Pennsylvania Consortium for Interdisciplinary Environmental Policy. Questions about the Forum should be directed to Don Brown at brownd@state.pa.us .

12/9/2005