Credit Trading Pilot Program

In 2018 the District received $300,000 in funding from the Legislative-Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources (LCCMR) to implement a Pilot Credit Trading System for Storm Water in the Shell Rock River Watershed District to Improve Water Quality. Credit trading is a flexible, cost effective compliance plan that can accelerate implementation and water quality improvements.

 

This program is a collaborative effort between the SRRWD, the City of Albert Lea, and the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency and includes RESPEC and TBL Consultants, LLC engineering and consulting services.  Stormwater credit trading begins when an upstream landowner, or discharger, reduces pollution or nutrients below levels that are required by law. Those nutrient reductions are then verified, and measured by third party scientists and translated into ‘credits’ that are sold to a credit bank. Downstream towns or cities would then purchase those credits instead of spending multi million dollars in stormwater system retrofits.

 

The program will establish a transferable approach that could be used across Minnesota for sediment and nutrient credit trading for stormwater.

 

Below are the outcomes of the LCCMR funded Stormwater Credit Trading Pilot Program.