A $1 million Conservation Innovation Grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture marks the second phase of a pilot water quality trading program in the Ohio River Basin. Water quality trading allows permitted emitters to purchase nutrient reductions achieved by other sources, including best management practices that control runoff.

The program, led by the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI; Palo Alto, Calif.) and launched in 2009, seeks to decrease control costs and nutrient pollution through a market-based program. The pilot program is an interstate, multicredit trading program that, at full scale, could include as many as 46 power plants, thousands of wastewater facilities, and approximately 230,000 farmers in eight states. Currently, the pilot program plans to reduce nitrogen loading by 20,412 kg and phosphorus loading by 6804 kg annually. Find more details here.