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Erie P Market: Project Archive
This project has ended. Archived project materials are available below.
From 2016 to 2018, the Great Lakes Commission developed and piloted the Erie P Market to address the excessive runoff of pollution from agricultural land that contributes to the formation of algal blooms and dead zones in the Great Lakes. The project was designed to test water quality trading and stewardship crediting as nutrient reduction tools capable of crossing state and provincial boundaries in the Western Lake Erie Basin. In December 2017, representatives from environmental and agricultural agencies in Michigan, Ohio, and Indiana signed a Memorandum of Understanding signaling their agreement to use the Erie P Market Framework as a guide for future efforts to catalyze water quality trading when determining who is eligible to trade, where and when trading can occur, trade ratios to buffer against uncertainty, and the process for verifying conservation practices are working to improve water quality . The province of Ontario also participated in the project as an observer.
Learn More about Erie P Market
The Erie P Market was first envisioned as a cost-effective way for National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permittees operating under phosphorus limits to achieve regulatory compliance. When the project’s Demand Analysis revealed a current lack of compliance drivers (a problem commonly experienced by other water quality trading markets nationwide), interest shifted to potential buyers in a “stewardship” credit market. Accommodating both compliance and stewardship markets within Erie P Market opened the market to more diverse buyers, including private sector entities and anyone interested in advancing personal or organizational sustainability goals.
In December 2017, representatives from environmental and agricultural agencies in Michigan, Ohio, and Indiana agreed to use the Framework to guide the generation and sale of phosphorus credits with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding. The province of Ontario also participated in the project as an observer. In June 2018, the first two contracts were signed for an Erie P Market stewardship trade in Fulton County, Ohio, and in August 2018, a third contract was executed with a producer in Lenawee County, Michigan. Conservation practices were installed over the summer and fall of 2018 on 536 acres of agricultural land. Through a filter strip, two grassed waterways, cover crops, and no-till farming, 1,156 pounds of total phosphorus will be prevented from entering surface waterways over the five-year contract period. Despite the change in project direction and limited resources available for marketing to a general public audience, five stewardship credits were sold at a price of $30 per credit/pound of total phosphorus to three separate buyers before the project funding period came to a close in December 2018.
The Erie P Market captured the attention of partners interested in using environmental markets as a tool to help heal Lake Erie from excessive nutrient loads, as well as those who see its potential to connect urban areas with upstream neighbors in agriculture. With additional funding, the GLC team and partners hope to apply the lessons learned from the Erie P Market to the entire binational Great Lakes basin.
Erie P Market Work Products
Erie P Market Framework & Signed Memorandum of Understanding
Framework Appendices
- Appendix A: Trading Advisory Group Roster
- Appendix B: Western Lake Erie Basin Dissolved Reactive Phosphorus (WLEB-DRP) Calculator
- Appendix C: Contracts and Templates
Technical Documents and Reports
- Erie P Market Supply and Demand Technical Memo
- Cross-cut Analysis of Water Quality Trading Programs for WLEB Trading Considerations
- WLEB Boundary Map
Additional Materials for Potential Buyers & Sellers
- Required Data Entry Spreadsheet for Sellers
- Generating and Selling Credits
- Buying Credits for Compliance
- Buying Credits for Stewardship
Links to Other Water Quality Trading Programs
- EPRI Ohio River Basin Trading Project
- Lake Simcoe Region Conservation Authority: Water Quality Trading
- Fox-Wolf Watershed Alliance: Fox P Trade-Water Quality Trading
- South Nation River Watershed: Point to Non-point Phosphorus Trading
Map of the Western Lake Erie Basin Boundary
*The products on this page were developed based upon work supported by the Natural Resource Conservation Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, under number 69-3A75-16-035. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in these publications and other products are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Project Management Team / Advisory Group
Great Lakes Commission
- Victoria Pebbles, Program Director
- Nicole Zacharda, Program Manager
- Dan Gold, Senior Water Quality Program Specialist
Kieser & Associates
- Mark Kieser, Senior Scientist
Indiana Department of Environmental Management
- Marylou Renshaw, Chief, Watershed Assessment and Planning Branch, Office of Water Quality
- Paul Novak, Chief, Permitting Branch, Office of Water Quality
Indiana Department of Natural Resources
- Doug Nusbaum, Lake and River Enhancement Program Specialist
Indiana State Department of Agriculture
- Jordan Seger, Director, Division of Soil Conservation
- Jennifer Thum, District Support Specialist
Michigan Department of Agriculture & Rural Development
- Joe Kelpinski, Program Manager, Environmental Stewardship Division
- Andrea Stay, Grants and Michigan Agricultural Environmental Assurance Program Training Liaison
Michigan Department of Environmental Quality
- Phil Argiroff, Chief, Water Resource Division, Permits Section
Ohio Department of Agriculture
- Kirk Hines, Chief, Soil and Water Conservation Division
- John Schlichter, Deputy Director of Plant Health, Livestock Environmental Permitting, Weights and Measures and Amusement Ride Safety
Ohio Environmental Protection Agency
- Gary Stuhlfauth, NPDES Permit Writer
- Karl Gebhardt, Deputy Director, Water Resources
Ohio Lake Erie Commission
- Sandra Kosek-Sills, Environmental Specialist; Balance growth Coordinator
Ontario Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change
- Leo Luong, Manager, Water Policy
- Steve Maude, Senior Policy Advisor
Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs
- Cale Selby, Team Lead, Program Coordination, Research and Partnership
Natural Resources Conservation Service – United States Department of Agriculture
- Jill Reinhart, Assistant State Conservationist, Partnerships
Trading Advisory Group
The Trading Advisory Group also includes the members of the Project Management Team.
Electric Power Research Institute
Jessica Fox, Project Manager
Black Swamp Conservancy
Rob Krain, Executive Director
Ohio Farm Bureau Federation
Larry Antosch, Senior director
The Nature Conservancy
Jessica D’Ambrosio, Western Lake Erie Basin Agricultural Project Director
Salford Group
Jim Boak, National Sales Managers
American Farmland Trust
Brian Brandt, Director, Agriculture Conservation Innovations
Miller Canfield
Steve Chester, Senior Counsel
Tri-State Watershed Alliance
Dan Wire, Executive Director
Ohio Department of Agriculture
Ed Crawford, Division of Soil and Water Conservation
Upper Thames Conservation Authority
Brad Glasman, Manager, Conservation Services
USDA Office of Environmental Markets
Mindy Selman, Senior Analyst
For More Information
Nicole Zacharda
Program Manager, Great Lakes Commission
734-971-9135
[email protected]