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The Trading Policy states that the following individuals or entities may generate credits to sell on the trading
market:
- Any generator of nonpoint source loads including farm owners, landowners, and/or renters or lessees who can demonstrate permission by the landowner to generate and sell credits
- Parties or entities that remove nutrients from the environment
- Maryland state entities
- Aggregators
If you fit into one of these categories, you must be in compliance with all applicable federal, state, and local laws to be eligible to trade. In addition, participating agricultural operations must have a current Nutrient Management Plan and updated Soil and Water Conservation Plan that includes, if appropriate, a Waste Management System
Plan.
The first step: Determine Your Baseline Requirements
The trading program requires that an agricultural operator or other land-owner must first achieve a certain level of nutrient reduction known as a “baseline” before generating credits to sell. In essence, you must first achieve reductions sufficient to meet the local Tributary Strategy requirements (or a local TMDL, if one is in place) and then make further reductions in order to generate credits to sell. Baseline requirements provide assurance that all participants are at a minimum level of conservation stewardship and are not currently impacting local water quality. Without this baseline requirement, all or most of the agriculture-related reductions needed to achieve Tributary Strategy or TMDL goals could instead be sold as credits on the trading market, allowing buyers’
loads to increase and leaving Maryland unable to achieve its Bay protection and restoration goals.
A baseline is expressed as an annual nitrogen or phosphorous per-acre loading rate and is based on the Tributary Strategy or TMDL goal for cropland. If all of the acreage in a given watershed achieved this rate, the Tributary Strategy or TMDL goal for agricultural nonpoint sources would be met in that watershed. The Tributary Strategy and TMDL loading goals vary by watershed, so the baselines vary by watershed as well.
You will need to determine the baseline loading rate for your farm for the nutrient you wish to sell. You can do this online using the credit estimation tool that is part of the Maryland Nutrient Trading Program website (www.mdnutrienttrading.com). The baseline
requirements for your watershed have been built into the trading tool. The site also contains tutorials and guidance on how to use the credit estimation tool and more information on how to participate in Maryland’s nonpoint source nutrient trading market.
Note that the entire tract, not just an individual field or pasture, must achieve the baseline loading rate before it qualifies to generate credits. A combination of agronomic and structural practices can be utilized to meet baseline load reductions. If you have already installed BMPs, they may be sufficient to achieve the baseline; if not, you would need to install additional BMPs or take other actions to reduce your load.
You may use federal and state cost-share programs to implement the BMPs that you use to meet the baseline nutrient reduction requirements. You cannot use state and federal funded BMPs to generate credits to sell. However, after the funded lifespan has expired, you can use the full BMP to generate credits through a recertification process.
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