Operationalizing Water Quality Trading in the Chesapeake Bay

This project proposes to conduct outreach to roughly 200 Environmental Quality Incentives Program eligible farmers in Virginia and Pennsylvania to determine eligibility for participation in trading and Agricultural Certainty programs, if applicable. The project will assess the potential for the supply of credits from agricultural producers using in-place state policies for establishing the agricultural baseline. It will also compare policies for setting the trading baseline in Pennsylvania and Virginia and the practice-based resource management plan approach in Virginia with performance-based approaches using the multi-state trading tool. The results can be used to inform state policies on these issues, to link these policies with compliance with the total maximum daily load requirements, and to facilitate multi-state trading opportunities. The project will seek feedback from producers as and state policymakers on the multi-state trading tool to help improve the tool and add features that are consistent with ongoing and future developments in state trading policies and user needs.