 | Vol. 6 No. 1 Summer 1998 |
| A Newsletter About New Jersey's Water Quality Programs |
Update on Effluent Trading
by Jim Murphy, Bureau of Pretreatment and Residuals
| Through the implementation of the effluent trading pilot project, users now have a creative new way to reduce water pollution. |
Two industrial facilities discharging into the Passaic Valley Sewerage Commissioners (PVSC) system have completed an effluent trade--the first of its kind in the nation.
As reported in the Summer 1997 edition of the New Jersey Discharger, the PVSC had instituted an alternative way for indirect users to achieve compliance with their discharge limitations. Through the implementation of the effluent trading pilot project, users now have a creative new way to reduce water pollution. Effluent trading is a regulatory method allowing dischargers achieving greater pollutant reductions than required to sell "credits" for their excess reductions to other dischargers not able to cost effectively reduce their own pollutants.
Under the trading program, two users, one in Newark and one in Paterson, have successfully completed a trade for copper. Once PVSC reviewed and approved the agreement, the discharge permits for each company were adjusted to reflect the trade. Twenty percent of the purchased amount was "banked" and is no longer available to be discharged. The environment is benefiting through a decrease in pollutant loading, and both facilities remain in compliance--a win-win situation.
Having a trade implemented under the pilot project enabled the effluent trading study group to evaluate the project from a practicle standpoint. As in all projects, there are many steps, and much to be learned and reported. A final report will be compiled to summarize the project, and will include such information as the history of local limits and effluent trading at PVSC, how the trading is structured, benefits of trading, organizational and sociological barriers to trading, approaches for promoting trading, and transferability of trading. The final report is tentatively scheduled to be released in Summer 1998.
If you would like further information regarding the effluent trading pilot project, please contact Jim Murphy, of the Bureau of Pretreatment and Residuals, at (609) 633-3823.