Type of Document Master's Thesis Author March, Daniel Jackson Author's Email Address damarch@vt.edu URN etd-02142001-091021 Title Pollutant Monitoring of Effluent Credit Trading Programs For Agricultural Nonpoint Source Control Degree Master of Engineering Department Civil and Environmental Engineering Advisory Committee
Advisor Name Title William E. Cox Committee Chair Daniel L. Gallagher Committee Member Kurt Stephenson Committee Member Saied Mostaghimi Committee Member Keywords
- nonpoint source
- effluent credit trading
- water quality
- monitoring
- land use monitoring
- trading
- agriculture
- best management plans
Date of Defense 2000-10-27 Availability unrestricted Abstract This study discusses the monitoring requirements of an effluent credit trading system that allowspoint source discharges to purchase effluent reductions by financing agricultural nonpoint source
best management practices. It describes the results of a national survey of existing trading
programs that assessed how each program determines nonpoint source baseline pollutant
discharges, pollutant reductions attributable to best management practices, verification of best
management practice(s) installation and maintenance activities, and how often this verification is
performed.
This study surveyed the nonpoint source discharge monitoring programs of several of the
successful effluent credit trading systems in the U.S. It documents and discusses specific
characteristics of nonpoint source pollutant discharge monitoring strategies. Finally, this thesis
compares trading program discharge monitoring characteristics to the current Virginia Cost-Share
nonpoint source monitoring program. The goal of this study is to recommend elements of
a nonpoint source discharge monitoring strategy to the Commonwealth of Virginia that can be
used in a trading program of its own.
The study shows that the majority of existing effluent credit trading programs use watershed
models and land use evaluation algorithms to indirectly monitor nonpoint source pollutant
discharges on a watershed basis rather than relying on empirical sampling and analysis activities
for individual farms of fields. Monitoring takes a variety of forms to provide the diverse
information necessary to indirectly determine nonpoint source discharges. Most trading
programs monitoring strategies are no more comprehensive than agricultural cost-share programs
even though many stakeholders believe that a trading program’s monitoring activities should be
exact enough to determine contributions from individual nonpoint sources to support the
payments for individual activities. This objection is a barrier to the acceptance of trading
programs by the public. A Virginia trading program must enhance its agricultural best
management practice cost-share program monitoring practices to track nonpoint source
discharges from individual farms or fields to be accepted and successful.
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