ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the viability of one policy tool, nutrient trading credits, as a means to incorporate non-point source (NPS) polluters into the Chesapeake Agreement. In the Chesapeake Bay, NPS forms of pollution, such as urban runoff and nutrient leaching from agricultural soils, are diffuse and incredibly difficult to quantify per site. The Chesapeake Bay Agreement established acceptable NPS best management practice (BMP) such as reduced tillage and land conservation, to incorporate farmers into water quality trading schemes, there may be a need to incorporate more BMPs given farmers' lack of interest in joining trading schemes to date. The chapter evaluates possible policy obstacles to using poultry char, the by-product of heating chicken litter in the absence of oxygen, as an approved on-farm BMP to include in nutrient trading schemes. Technological innovation must be coupled with governance innovation, such as incorporating agriculture into both nutrient and carbon credit trading schemes, when trying to reduce pollution in a region.
