Lower Boise River Effluent Trading
Demonstration Project
Scroll Down to download the Lower Boise River
Effluent Trading Demonstration Project Final Report
The Lower Boise River Effluent Trading Demonstration Project is the first effluent trading project in the Pacific Northwest. Effluent trading is a business-like way of helping to solve water quality problems by focusing on cost effective, local solutions to problems caused by pollutant discharges to surface waters. Typically, a party facing relatively high pollutant reduction costs chooses to compensate another party to achieve an equivalent or better, though less costly, pollutant reduction. Parties trade only if both are better off as a result of the trade. The Lower Boise project was initiated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency - Region 10 (EPA) and the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) to examine how effluent trading can help improve water quality, and lower the overall cost of meeting pollutant reduction objectives established by Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) processes. Participants in the project included wide representation from federal, state and local agencies with water quality responsibilities, agriculture, municipalities, industry and the environmental community. The final document, Summary of Participant Recommendations for an Effluent Trading Framework, which describes the trading system design that the group recommends DEQ and EPA incorporate into the lower Boise TMDL and NPDES permits, is available below.
The following files are in Adobe Acrobat (PDF) format.
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Description of Documents:
Final Report: Summary of Participant Recommendations for a Trading Framework (737k PDF)
Describes the trading framework for the effluent trading system, as well as the context for selecting the Lower Boise River as an effluent trading demonstration project and the stakeholder-based process used to develop the trading system design. It concludes with a description of the necessary tasks remaining to be completed by the federal and state agencies and stakeholders, in order to launch the trading program and to make the demonstration project a success.
The following appendices provide detailed descriptions and examples of the design elements of the framework:
Appendix A: Association
Appendix B: Ratios
Appendix C: Trade Record Keeping and Tracking
Appendix D: Model Trade Information
Appendix E: Action Plan for Implementation of the Trading Framework (13k PDF)
Appendix F: Agency Agreement on the Lower Boise River Effluent Trading Demonstration
Project, Statement of Understanding and Responsibilities, April 21, 2000 (31k PDF)
Appendices A-F: Click to get all appendices in one file (533k PDF)
For more information about effluent trading:
- EPA Contact
Claire Schary
schary.claire@epa.gov.
206 553-8514 (1-800-424-4EPA toll-free from Alaska, Idaho, Oregon or Washington State)
- State of Idaho Contact
Joe (Gerald) King, Idaho DEQ (Boise Regional Office)
gking@deq.state.id.us
208 373-0564
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