Effluent Trading: A Policy Review for Texas
Funder: Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission (TNRCC)
In November 1999, ISTPP completed a project entitled Effluent Trading: A Policy Review for Texas. This study and report were prepared at the request of and funded by the Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission (TNRCC). The standard approach to water regulation, both in Texas and throughout the nation, has been to regulate discharges using technology-based restrictions on point-source emitters. While these regulations have been quite successful in addressing the most egregious water problems, they have major weaknesses that are driving the consideration of market-based trading. Effluent trading programs offer viable means to reduce loading of certain pollutants, and there is a growing body of experience with these programs across the country. Furthermore, the U.S. EPA's support for effluent trading means that the institutional barriers to the continued development of such programs are coming down.
While there is a wide array of technical, economic, legal and regulatory, and sociopolitical alternatives, this report presents five broad policy approaches for effluent trading that might be taken by the TNRCC. Advantages and disadvantages of each approach, how each approach has been applied elsewhere in the U.S., and the implications for each approach to TNRCC are reviewed.
Research team members included PI Dr. Arnold Vedlitz (ISTPP/political science) and co-PIs Dr. Mark A. Fossett (sociology and the Race and Ethnic Studies Institute), Dr. Ronald Kaiser (recreation, park, and tourism sciences), Dr. Marty D. Matlock (biological and agricultural engineering, University of Arkansas), and Dr. Richard T. Woodward (agricultural economics).
