Water Quality Trading Technical Resources

EPA Resources

• Water Quality Trading on a Watershed Scale (November 2020)
  • The first market-based principle in EPA’s 2019 memorandum (Updating EPA’s Water Quality Trading Policy to Promote Market-Based Mechanisms for Improving Water Quality) encourages states, tribes, and stakeholders to consider implementing water quality trading on a watershed scale. This paper describes factors that water quality trading program managers may want to consider when evaluating the appropriate scale for a trading area.

• Report on 2015 EPA-USDA National Workshop on Water Quality Markets (pdf) (June 2016)
  • In support of the 2013 EPA-USDA Partnership Agreement to Support Water Quality Trading, EPA and USDA co-sponsored a national workshop on water quality trading from September 15 to 17, 2015, in Lincoln, Nebraska. This report summarizes participant discussions on issues related to developing and operating water quality markets. This summary is offered for public discussion and consideration, and information presented does not necessarily represent the views of either EPA or USDA.

• Water Quality Trading Evaluation (October 2008)
  • This evaluation assessed the effectiveness of EPA activities to support water quality trading to better understand implementation barriers to participation in water quality trading markets. The evaluation summarizes and discusses a range of 55 stakeholders’ responses to 14 evaluation questions. Chapter 4 includes recommendations for future efforts to support water quality trading based on a literature review and stakeholder input.

Non-EPA Resources

• U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Water Quality Trading Resources
• USDA Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) Environmental Market Resources
• Environmental Trading Network
• World Resources Institute Trading Page
• National Network on Water Quality Trading

Tools for Estimating Load Reductions

• Agriculture Policy/Environmental eXtender (APEX) Model
  • The APEX model was developed by Texas A&M AgriLife Research with funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Agricultural Research Service and Natural Resources Conservation Service. The APEX model simulates the environmental and production impacts of various land management strategies for whole farms and small watersheds.

• Nutrient Tracking Tool (NTT)
  • Developed by the Texas Institute for Applied Environmental Research (TIAER) with assistance from USDA’s Office of Environmental Markets, NTT estimates nutrient and sediment losses for crop and pasture at the field and/or watershed scales.

Further Information on Nonpoint Source Pollution

Visit EPA's nonpoint source website and contact your state and regional Nonpoint Source Pollution Program contacts for more information on reducing nonpoint source discharges.