Market-based approaches and tools for improving water and air quality (original) (raw)
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A conceptual market framework for water-bound nitrate pollution
International Journal of Water Resources Development, 2017
The conversion of bottomland hardwood and swamp forests to irrigated agriculture has had problematic consequences for water bodies. Many of these problems can be linked to the use of synthetic nitrogen fertilizers to increase crop production. To date, there is little monitoring of nitrogen use in watersheds, which may be due to large fixed costs. Using market-based techniques which have addressed previous environmental challenges, with remotely sensed data to track a pollutant's source, may be one alternative, by incentivizing nitrogen users to behave according to abatement costs traced back to the point of origin of a pollutant.
Nutrient Credit Trading--a Market-based Approach for Improving Water Quality
2008 Providence, Rhode Island, June 29 - July 2, 2008, 2008
Imagine the day when you could gain financial rewards for implementing conservation practices on your farm. It is now possible because these practices can assist industrial users in the watershed meet regulatory requirements, thus reducing the overall pollutant discharge to a water body and improving its water quality. This is not a scenario of the future. Rather, it is currently being practiced and developed in many states around the United States, and it is called Water Quality Trading. Producers are getting paid for their stewardship in natural resource conservation activities. They are accumulating and selling credits earned through nutrient or sediment reduction by implementing conservation measures. Wastewater treatment plants are buying these credits to meet their regulatory requirements within the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permits. These permits restrict the amount of pollutants the plants can discharge from their facilities to the local water bodies. It provides an economic incentive for the agricultural sector as well as contributes to cleaner rivers and streams. Water quality trading leads to a mutually beneficial situation for all involved in the process. Treatment plants utilize a full suite of measures to meet their regulatory requirement. Purchasing water quality credits allows industries more flexibility in investment in new technologies; the producers get rewarded for their efforts, and the environment benefits in multiple facets including water quality, wildlife habitat, and carbon sequestration. This chapter reviews the approaches to water quality trading, its current status of implementation around the nation, and different tools (including the Nitrogen Trading Tool (NTT) being developed by the USDA/ NRCS) to facilitate in this process. 2. Introduction: Water quality trading is a market-based approach that pairs buyers of water quality credits with the people generating these credits through conservation and stewardship to achieve the best results for the least cost. For example, a downstream wastewater treatment plant needs to reduce the amount of pollutants it discharges to meet its NPDES permit requirements. Instead of spending huge amounts of money to upgrade or install new equipment on-site, it could fund less expensive agricultural conservation practice(s) upstream and achieve better quality of pollution control. These agricultural practices, also known as Best Management Practices (BMPs), would not only combat the pollutant
Assessment of nitrogen losses to the environment with a Nitrogen Trading Tool (NTT)
Computers and Electronics in Agriculture, 2008
Nitrogen Trading Tool NLEAP NTT N 2 O Global Warming Potential Carbon Sequestration Equivalents a b s t r a c t Nitrogen (N) losses from agriculture often contribute to reduced air, groundwater, and surface water quality. The minimization of these N losses is desirable from an environmental standpoint, and a recent interest in discounted reductions of agricultural N losses that might apply to a project downstream from an agricultural area has resulted in the concept of N credits and associated N trading. To help quantify management-induced reductions in N losses at the farm field level (essential components of a Nitrogen Trading Tool), we defined a Nitrogen Trading Tool difference in reactive N losses (NTT-DNL reac ) as the comparison between a baseline and new management scenarios. We used a newly released Windows XP version of the Nitrogen Losses and Environmental Assessment Package (NLEAP) simulation model with Geographic Information System (GIS) capabilities (NLEAP-GIS) to assess no-till systems from a humid North Atlantic US site, manure management from a Midwestern US site, and irrigated cropland from an arid Western US site. The new NTT-DNL reac can be used to iden-
Nitrogen in the Environment: Chapter 22. New Policy Directions
2008
Advances in linking the science of ecology with economics and the development of agri-environmental modeling systems coupled with new information technology suggest new public policy approaches that reward agricultural producers for providing ecological services. An incentive-based ecosystem approach that identifies and quantifies an array of environmental services that can be provided by agricultural land, and then facilitates the development of markets in these services can protect environmental quality while improving farm income. Sustainability can be achieved whereby economic needs of society are integrated into environmental protection. Before presenting new agricultural policy approaches for improving environmental quality and, in particular, managing agricultural nitrogen, the nature of the relationship between agriculture and the environment and its implications for policy are discussed.
Abatement Cost Heterogeneity and Its Impact on Tradable Nitrogen Discharge Permits
Nitrogen discharge into the Waikato River has been identified as the primary source of potential water quality degradation. Rising nitrogen levels in water are attributed to non point source pollution from agricultural activities. Pastoral farming is the predominant agricultural land use in the catchment. Increased nitrogen fertilizer use and higher stocking rates have the potential to increase the nitrogen loading into water. There is a range of best management practices and policies proposed to reduce nitrogen discharge from farming systems. Water quality trading is a policy tool that could improve the cost effectiveness of achieving environmental goals. Economic theory suggests that tradable pollution permit systems encourage polluters to reallocate pollution burdens to take advantage of any differences in marginal abatement costs. This paper develops an analytical frame work to derive nitrogen abatement costs for farms in a Waikato river sub-catchment. Policies and practices are evaluated using a bio-economic model of a typical pastoral farm in the Waikato river sub-catchment. Implications of pollution trading at the farm level are examined using programming simulation models.
Potential for Reducing Nitrogen Pollution Through Improved Agronomic Practices
Journal of The American Water Resources Association, 1994
According to the 1990 National Water Quality Inventory nutrient runoff from agriculture is one of the largest contributors to watershed contamination. Nutrient balance studies suggest that many farmers use more fertilizer than necessary because of insufficient crediting for nutrients coming from manure and legumes. Using data from the USDA's 1990 Farm Costs and Returns Survey, we found that farmers raising only conventional crops spend between 470to470 to 470to624 million more per year on fertilizer than necessary. This accounts for a range of 24 percent to 32 percent of total annual nitrogen (N) purchases. The excess N amounts to between 2.5 to 3.3 billion pounds N and has considerable water pollution potential. Farmers and the fertilizer industry have responded positively to highly focused research and education programs which support improved crediting of these nutrients.
Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, 2010
Nitrous oxide (N 2 O) is a major greenhouse gas (GHG) product of intensive agriculture. Fertilizer nitrogen (N) rate is the best single predictor of N 2 O emissions in rowcrop agriculture in the US Midwest. We use this relationship to propose a transparent, scientifically robust protocol that can be utilized by developers of agricultural offset projects for generating fungible GHG emission reduction credits for the emerging US carbon cap and trade market. By coupling predicted N 2 O flux with the recently developed maximum return to N (MRTN) approach for determining economically profitable N input rates for optimized crop yield, we provide the basis for incentivizing N 2 O reductions without affecting yields. The protocol, if widely adopted, could reduce N 2 O from fertilized row-crop agriculture by more than 50%. Although other management and environmental factors can influence N 2 O emissions, fertilizer N rate can be viewed as a single unambiguous proxy-a transparent, tangible, and readily manageable commodity. Our protocol addresses baseline establishment, additionality, permanence, variability, and leakage, and provides for producers and other stakeholders the economic and environmental incentives necessary for adoption of agricultural N 2 O reduction offset projects.
Advances in Agronomy, 2010
Contents i. Introduction 118 2. Understanding the Nitrogen Cycle with Respect to Nitrogen Management and Trading 2.1. Understanding the relationships between the soil-crop-hydrologic cycle and nitrogen trading 127 2.2. Inputs 2.3. Transformations and pathways for reactive and total nitrogen losses 2.4. Nitrogen management and long-term effects on nitrogen pools 2.5. Relationships: Carbon and nitrogen sequestration and emissions of N20 3. New Technologies 3.1. Tier one spreadsheet approaches 3.2. New prototypes: Web-based and stand-alone modeling approaches 4. Case Scenarios: GIS Trading Tool Concept Evaluations 4.1. Irrigated systems from dry western US 4.2. No-till systems from north atlantic region 4. 3. Manure operations from midwest region
2005
In the Netherlands nitrogen control policy is focusing on reducing (i) leaching and runoff of N to ground water and surface water and (ii) emissions of ammonia (NH 3 ) and nitrous oxide (N 2 O) to the atmosphere. An integrated N model is thus crucial to determine the (cost) effectiveness of measures at regional and national scale. Because existing models do not focus on the fluxes of all relevant reactive N compounds to different compartments and are mostly complex, parameter rich and data hungry, they are less suitable for an integrated evaluation of mitigation measures on a regional or national scale. Therefore, the integrated nitrogen model Initiator was developed, representing all crucial processes in the N chain by simple process descriptions. Here we address the plausibility of Initiator and demonstrate how the model can be used for the evaluation of mitigation strategies. Plausibility was judged on a comparison of the crucial model outputs (leaching and runoff of N to ground water and surface water and emissions of NH 3 and N 2 O to the atmosphere) with those of the complex national reference models and a comparison between modelled nitrate concentrations in groundwater with available measurements. Results show that the model performance of Initiator is comparable to that of complex references models,, especially when focussing at a national scale. Mitigation measures where evaluated on their environmental benefit and their cost effectiveness as well. Management measures appear to be rather cost effective in order to reduce the N losses to atmosphere and water compartments, but additional expensive technical measures are needed to comply with national and European directives on ammonia emissions to the