PA Development Using Nutrient Credit Trading to Protect Water Quality

A planned resort community in Ararat Township, Susquehanna County, PA will reduce pollution to the Chesapeake Bay by using the state’s innovative nutrient credit trading program. The Preserve at Dunn Lake becomes the first new development project in northeastern Pennsylvania to use the nutrient credit trading alternative.

After thoroughly evaluating the factors associated with their development's NPDES permit, the developers chose to apply for nutrient credit trading using a cost-effective alternative to reducing pollution runoff. The developer was required to evaluate non-discharge alternatives, conduct a social-economic justification analysis for the project, and use the department's water quality anti-degradation regulations as part of its application and decision to participate in the nutrient credit trading program. The requirements were also necessary given discharges from the development will be to a high quality cold water fishery. The Preserve at Dunn Lake will include 37 vacation home sites and a 30-room inn with a restaurant and banquet facilities. The permit allows the resort community to discharge 19,000 gallons of treated sewage per day to the East Branch of the Lackawanna River.

The credits that are traded in the program can be purchased by developers, which allows them to have a certain amount of nutrients in their discharge equivalent to what has been purchased and removed elsewhere in the watershed. For this project, the developer entered into a contract with the Red Barn Trading Company, a Lancaster firm that represents farmers who agree to remove manure from their fields and ship it to areas outside of the Chesapeake Bay watershed. The manure would be used as a soil conditioner in nutrient deficient areas outside of the watershed. http://www.depweb.state.pa.us/news/cwp/view.asp?Q=533039&A=3

F. X. Browne, Inc. is experienced in preparing planning modules and stormwater permit applications, as well as calculating the nonpoint source load reductions required for nutrient trading. We can help design developments using Low-Impact Development techniques and other methods of meeting NPDES stormwater permitting requirements. In addition, F. X. Browne, Inc is a Qualified Consultant under PADEP's Third Party Review expedited NPDES stormwater permitting process. For more information, contact info@fxbrowne.com.