What is the Role of the Bay Program in Nutrient Trading?
One of the greatest water quality challenges facing the Chesapeake Bay is excess nutrients. The Chesapeake 2000 Agreement has a goal of delisting the Bay from the impaired water bodies list for nutrients and sediments by 2010. Studies in support of the Chesapeake 2000 initiative show that it is necessary to go beyond reduction approaches implemented to date and think creatively about additional, new, and alternative reduction methods. New techniques, such as nutrient trading, may provide an additional tool needed to meet the ambitious nutrient goals. The Chesapeake Bay Program convened the Nutrient Trading Negotiation Team (Negotiation Team) in June 1999 for the purpose of exploring the feasibility of nutrient trading for point and nonpoint sources in the Chesapeake Bay watershed and, if appropriate, develop nutrient trading guidelines for the Bay jurisdictions to use on a voluntary basis. The Negotiation Team was composed of a wide array of interested stakeholders from across the wate
