Water Quality Trading in Jordan Lake Watershed, NC: A Cautionary Tale.

Jordan Lake in central North Carolina, which provides many ecosystem services including drinking water to over 300,000 people, is considered nutrient sensitive due to excess nitrogen and phosphorus, and as such, is under a regulatory framework. Water quality trading (WQT) rules are part of this regulatory framework with the special intent of non-point source (urban development) to non-point source (agriculture). Recently, municipalities used data from a pair-watershed study to propose nutrient credits that could be attained by the urban sector from agriculture through the use of nutrient management and exclusion fencing. Although farmers would continue to own the land, they could not make any modifications to the buffered area nor use this land for any other purpose in perpetuity. This form of WQT has several issues related to nutrient management planning and certification. Additionally, a recent integrated project just completed, demonstrated that in this low intensity agricultural watershed, there is approximately 1 to 3 years of nutrient credits from agricultural nutrient management practices and exclusion fencing, which could be purchased at a reasonable price. Further, a survey of farmers determined that many are not willing to participate in WQT to derive credits. This case study highlights the difficulty in WQT broadly, and the use of nutrient management more specifically.