MADISON– Representative Joel Kitchens (R-Sturgeon Bay) and Senator Robert Cowles (R-Green Bay) released the following statement after the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) recently verified the credits and certified the first trades under the third-party Wisconsin Water Quality Trading Clearinghouse, a first-of-its-kind system made possible by 2019 Wisconsin Act 151 authored by Representative Kitchens and Senator Cowles and co-authored with former Representative Gary Tauchen (R-Bonduel) and former Senator Jerry Petrowski (R-Marathon):
“Not all water pollution can be traced back to a single cause. Instead of spending millions of dollars to make a minuscule impact on water quality, companies can now contract with local farmers to make a much bigger impact on water quality,” Kitchens said, “The water quality credit program allows companies to work together with farmers to improve water quality. This law creates a third-party clearinghouse to help facilitate water quality trades. With these new rules in place, these partnerships can concentrate on making our water safer.”
The Wisconsin Water Quality Trading Clearinghouse allows point-source dischargers (i.e. wastewater treatment plants, dairy and food processing facilities, paper factories, etc.) to provide payment to the Clearinghouse to receive flexibility on their ratcheted phosphorus discharge permits. The Clearinghouse directs these payments to a nonpoint source (i.e. agricultural runoff, urban runoff, etc.) which must reduce a greater amount of the same pollutant in the same watershed (at least 1.2 pounds removed for every 1.0 pound of permit flexibility). This gives an extra source of income for farmers and others to pay for environmental practices they don’t otherwise have the funds to implement, saves money for wastewater discharge ratepayers, and reduces costs for local industry.
“The Water Quality Trading Clearinghouse has the opportunity to lower costs for phosphorus discharge compliance and create cleaner waters throughout Wisconsin,” added Senator Cowles. “This will benefit our economy and our environment. I’m pleased that we’ve been able to cut past some of the bureaucratic delays that caused the first trades to take more than 1,000 days since the legislation’s enactment, and it’s my hope that this milestone is just the beginning and that we’ll see more mutually-beneficial trades soon.”
When signed into law on March 3rd, 2020, 2019 Wisconsin Act 151 had the co-authorship or co-sponsorship of more than 50 legislators from both sides of the aisle and had received no votes against the bill in either committee or on the Senate or Assembly floors. The legislation also earned support from 35 different stakeholder groups, including agricultural, business, municipal, and environmental stakeholders.
