The Department of Environmental Protection published a notice in the PA Bulletin December 30 saying it has finalized the Pennsylvania Stormwater Best Management Practices Manual and its policy for trading nutrient reduction credits.

DEP said the Manual will be posted on its BMP Manual Training webpage and previous versions of the credit trading policy have been posted on the Chesapeake Bay Program webpage and on DEP’s Nutrient Trading webpage.

The trading policy is designed to lower the cost of complying with nutrient reduction requirements, like in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed, by creating credits for every pound of nutrients reduced that can be traded to parties that are required to reduce nutrients.

By creating this credit market, sellers of credits from cheaper nutrient reduction techniques like installing best management practices on farms can be traded to buyers who would otherwise have to install expensive technology on wastewater treatment facilities to comply.

The net result is a lower cost of removing nutrients.

The comment period on the trading policy just closed December 15.

The Stormwater BMP Manual is a technical reference guide of planning concepts and design standards that satisfy Pennsylvania’s stormwater management requirements when properly tailored and applied locally.

DEP has scheduled training on the Manual in January and February around the state.

NewsClip: DEP Publishes Revised Trading Policy for Water Quality Improvement

12/29/2006