Water Quality Trading Guide

Getting Paid for Stewardship: An Agricultural Community Water Quality Trading Guide

Manyagricultural producers already know the benefits of implementingconservation practices in their operations. Better soil, cleaner waterand greater profits are just some of the advantages. What if producerscould earn even more for those same conservation practices? It’spossible with water quality trading.

Thereduction in pollution that a producer generates by implementingconservation practices can be “traded” with an industrial or municipalfacility that is required by law to reduce the amount of pollution inits wastewater. The best part: the producer will get paid for the trade.

CTIC,under a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Environmental ProtectionAgency, has developed a new guide to help the agricultural advisorsunderstand why producers may want to participate in water qualitytrading and how water quality trading works.

Thisguide introduces the elements that are key to the trading process,noting critical questions to keep in mind as you go. References foradditional information are also included.

Water Quality Trading Guide