Despite decades of regulation, 40 percent of our surface waters remain polluted. One of the major problems is agricultural nutrient run-off.
- Annually about 10 million metric tons of nitrogen and phosphorus are discharged into American surface waters.
Farmers fearing the red tape, high costs and practical difficulties in controlling nutrient run-off, have bitterly resisted government programs to control pollution.
But what if the cost went down and flexibility went up?
The World Resources Institute (WRI) decided to explore the cost and performance of various strategies to help farmers, and municipal and industrial sources reduce nutrient pollution. The result was NutrientNet.
NutrientNet is:
- An on-line information bank that allows farmers to explore their options to control nutrient run-off.
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An electronic market place that enables farmers to get financial help by selling pollution reductions to municipal and industrial polluters.
Making information and permit trading available to polluters is a proven way of helping them adhere to regulations. When the U.S. Congress was looking to reduce air pollution back in 1990, the solution was the “cap and trade” law which set a cap on air pollution and allowed polluters to buy and sell permits.
Could the same approach work for reducing water pollutants? Paul Faeth and his team in WRI’s Economics Program thought so.
Working with officials from Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin watersheds, they set out to see if nutrient trading programs are cheaper than conventional approaches and can achieve comparable benefits. Faeth’s framework and model for these studies are now on-line. They show cost savings of 63 to 87 percent and reductions in pollution of up to 40 percent. Go to, Fertile ground: Nutrient trading potential to cost-effectively improve water quality.
“The World Resources Institute’s (WRI’s) NutrientNet is an extremely valuable tool that can facilitate development and implementation of water quality trading programs like those being developed in Michigan and other parts of the country,” says David J. Batchelor, Chair of the Great Lakes Trading Network, Michigan. WRI has been instrumental in the development of Michigan’s Water Quality Trading Program.
But trading is not a substitute for regulation, nor a way of letting environmental polluters off the hook. However, the flexibility of this program produces a less expensive outcome overall while achieving – and often going beyond – the mandated environmental targets. Farmers can implement pollution reductions and maybe even make some money.
“NutrientNet’s website at www.nutrientnet.org allows farmers with low-cost pollution reduction options to sell excess reductions to others,” says Faeth.
An added bonus: Slowing emissions of “greenhouse gases” that cause global warming
Our latest research shows that the same measures that reduce water pollution, reduce emissions of nitrogen oxide, the largest source of green house gas emissions from US agriculture. WRI’s proposals would help farmers clean up our waters and protect our climate and they can do these on-line.
- Faeth briefed farm groups, congressional staffers, climate negotiators, and environmental officials. His radio interviews were broadcast by more than 300 stations across the Midwest, and the report received widespread print coverage.
- WRI’s press release was posted prominently on the 3 million member website of the American Farm Bureau (AFB). Officials of the AFB now say that nitrogen is a significant climate issue and that farmers can play a role in addressing it.
