Sustainable Water Quality Management Policy: The Role of Trading: The U.S. Experience

After the success of the Acid Rain Program, pollution trading became a more acceptable policy in dealing with pollution problems. Trading of pollution credits and allowances helps to achieve environmental goals faster and more co- effectively. Although for the past 20 years water pollution trading had been in effect for as long as air pollution trading, many water quality trading programs - as compared to air pollution trading programs - lack success in the implementation of trading. The motivation factor for my work came from an interest in learning and understanding what the differences were that culminated in different levels of success being achieved between water pollution trading programs and air pollution trading programs. Moreover, another incentive was not only to understand what the role of trading should be for managing water quality, but also how to better improve the water quality trading programs in order to become successful. This book focuses on the examination of problems existing within a mark- based system for water pollution control policy in the United States, and provides essential information for introducing market-based instruments for water quality management, presents general situations where trading may or may not work, and offers a recommendation for those interested in developing new water trading programs as a suitable option for solving localized water pollution, for ?ne-tuning the system after implementation, and for overcoming trading obstacles. The book is divided into 5 chapters.