Wisconsin bill would create water pollution credit clearinghouse

Republican legislators are pushing a bill to streamline Wisconsin’s water pollution credit-trading system, a move that would make it easier for farms and large-scale facilities to trade with one another. The bill’s authors, Sen. Rob Cowles, Sen. Jerry Petrowski and Rep. Joel Kitchens say the measure could save taxpayers the cost of upgrading public facilities to meet new phosphorous standards, and it would provide farmers with a new revenue source.“Third-party trading could save some communities from passing multimillion-dollar wastewater treatment plant upgrade costs onto residents for little water quality improvement, keep small manufacturers and food producers open and operating, and, perhaps, best of all, help to save some of our cherished farmers from hanging a ‘closed for business’ sign on the barn,” the lawmakers said in a memo seeking co-sponsors.Wisconsin law currently divides polluters into two classes: so-called point sources, such as municipal sewage treatment plants that discharge pollutants directly into the environment, and nonpoint sources. The state’s largest dairy farms, with 1,000 or more cattle, also can be point sources. Nonpoint sources include smaller farms that pollute through runoff.