The Effluent Trading Pilot Team has worked together to achieve the first ever trade of local pretreatment limits across facilities that discharge to a POTW at Passaic Valley Sewerage Commissioners (PVSC) in Newark, New Jersey. This trade was completed in the summer of 1997.¹  Team members include representatives from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJ DEP), PVSC, and various facilities that discharge into the PVSC system.

     The goal of this pilot project was to promote cleaner, cheaper and smarter compliance alternatives for chemical manufacturing companies and to enhance environmental improvement. Effluent trading of local pretreatment limits is an approach to addressing concerns over difficulties in meeting permit discharge limits for certain substances. The Team believes that effluent trading provides benefits to facilities (increased flexibility and economic savings), POTWs (enhanced image as "innovator"), and the environment (PVSC "banked" 20% of the metals traded).

     The lessons learned form this pilot are documented in the Pilot Project report, "Sharing the Load: Effluent Trading for Indirect Dischargers" (EPA-231-R-98-003). The report also provides information on the structure and background of the trade and guidance on how to implement trading of local pretreatment limits at your POTW. It includes discussions of the benefits of trading, elements of a successful trading program, organizational and sociological aspects of trading, and approaches for promoting trading within a POTW service area. You can get a copy of the report by clicking here to see or download it or by calling Catherine Tunis, U.S. EPA project manager for the NJ CIP, at 202-260-2698.

     Due to the ground-breaking nature of this trade, we have made several presentations at conferences and received press coverage in the New Jersey and national environmental trade press. The results of this effort have been well-received by NJ DEP, EPA's Office of Water, and industrial facilities and POTWs nationwide, and EPA has distributed the report to pretreatment coordinators in all ten regions.

     For more information on water trading, see the Draft Framework for Watershed-Based Trading, or visit EPA's Office of Water Trading web site.

¹ Since completion of this Pilot, additional companies in the PVSC service area have expressed interest in trading and a second trade agreement has been signed. Return

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Last Revision: March 13, 2000
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