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Local governments may soon have guidelines to meet water pollution standards by purchasing credits from farmers.

Under the credit trading system, municipalities that are exceeding nutrient discharge limits could fund agricultural management practices that lower nutrient discharge throughout their watershed. The program allows cities to avoid costly pollution controls while maintaining acceptable water quality.

However, OFBF has sent several letters to the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency expressing concern that premature rulemaking could hinder the development of such projects. OFBF urged the Ohio EPA to first test several locally developed projects.

"Supporting multiple pilot water quality trading projects in Ohio provides Ohio EPA the opportunity to test several new ideas and approaches to trading and learn from them," wrote OFBF Executive Vice President Jack Fisher in the latest letter to Ohio EPA. Pilot projects are currently under way in the Great Miami and Sugar Creek watersheds.

Larry Antosch, OFBF director of environmental research, said if the EPA rulemaking process moves forward, existing credit trading projects should be grandfathered to give participants a sense of certainty.

"They want some assurances that what they're setting up now is going to stay in place," he said.

Also of concern to Farm Bureau is that large livestock farms, known as concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs), are not be eligible to participate in the program under the proposed rules. Antosch said if such operations can find ways to remove nutrients from a watershed, they should have the opportunity to sell nutrient credits.

In his letter, Fisher said the limits imposed on CAFOs appear "arbitrary and capricious."

There was some encouraging news in EPA's rules, Antosch said. Soil and water conservation professionals have been designated to oversee the nutrient management practices implemented by farmers.

"Those practices need to be viewed, verified and inspected to ensure they continue to generate water quality credits," he said. "That inspection should be carried out by a professional and these individuals are the most knowledgeable and appropriate to do so."

To read OFBF's comments to Ohio EPA in their entirety, visit www.ofbf.org and click on Ecology of Agriculture then Regulatory Action Center.