Previewing written comments due Nov. 18, urban stormwater and agriculture officials are praising EPA efforts to encourage market-based approaches for addressing water quality through modifications of the agency's water quality trading policy while environmentalists are raising concerns about its lack of enforceability. The mixed reaction, made in public remarks at an Oct. 21 listening session at EPA headquarters in Washington, D.C., responds to EPA's September request for comment on several policy options to boost the use of water quality trading by making it easier for nonpoint sources of pollution to generate credits for sale. The floated policy options are an effort to further detail one of six principles outlined in a February policy memorandum to update the agency's 2003 water quality trading policy. EPA staff at the listening session said the agency is not looking to pick one of the many options for encouraging nonpoint source pollution reductions beyond the "baseline" identified in a total maximum daily load (TMDL). Instead, the agency is looking to see what options are supportable, with the intention that they could be used individually or in combination.
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