Read more about the National Network on Water Quality Trading by clicking the picture above.

The National Network on Water Quality Trading is hosting the launch of a new, timely, and robust reference: Building a Water Quality Trading Program: Options and Considerations on Thursday June 18th at 8:30 AM at the World Resources Institute (WRI) headquarters in Washington. The launch will feature experts in water quality trading and an opportunity to engage in open dialogue on the current challenges, opportunities, and ways to move forward. The launch can be attended via webinar.

Water quality trading programs are unique because they bring private landowners, federal and state agencies, and businesses to the table to improve watershed health in a collaborative way. Each entity is subject to different regulations and laws, but water quality trading provides a way for point and nonpoint source sectors, including agriculture, to collaborate to meet pollutant reduction requirements, lowering the costs of cleaning up waterways.

Building a Water Quality Trading Program breaks down the daunting barrier of building a trading program from scratch, allowing communities to chart a new path toward their clean water goals in a way that is defensible, credible, and efficient. It does this by walking you through 11 key elements many trading programs consider in their design to achieve transparency, integrity, and credibility. Examples, options, and considerations for program design are synthesized for each element to help you evaluate if WQT is the right fit and how best to build a program that meets your needs. Building a Water Quality Trading Program draws from the last several decades of experience, drawing specific examples from 15 water quality trading programs across the U.S. It is the collective effort and product of conversations, workshops, surveys, and line-for-line feedback from 18 diverse organizations that make up the National Network (listed below) representing agriculture, wastewater utilities, environmental groups, regulatory agencies, and practitioners delivering water quality trading programs.

An event summary will be posted on our website, and the publication will be available for download on our website. So whether you represent a regulatory agency, an agricultural operation, conservation group, wastewater utility, or are just interested in water quality solutions, stay tuned to get your hands on this new, robust reference and learn how you can engage!