Jimmy Mardis and Jamie Burr of Tyson Foods undertook a presentation at the Midwest Groundwater Conference addressing water quality trading from the poultry producers’ perspective.
The 60th Midwest Groundwater Conference was held in Bentonville, Arkansas from October 13-15 and featured over 40 speakers from a number of states.
Water quality trading generally involves an attempt to achieve water quality goals in a more efficient or cost effective manner. The “trading” is based on the premise that sources in a watershed may be subject to varying costs to control the same pollutant. Facilities facing higher pollution costs may seek reductions from another source that can address the pollutants at lower costs. If so, this may enable the facility to achieve the same water quality improvement at an overall lower cost.
The 90th Arkansas General Assembly enacted legislation providing the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality and the Arkansas Pollution Control and Ecology Commission the authority to promulgate a water quality trading program. Therefore, Arkansas is proceeding with the development of a trading program.
Mr. Mardis and Mr. Burr’s presentation discussed issues such as:
- Poultry litter export
- Tons exported annually from IRW (100,000 tons)
- Kansas
- Missouri
- Oklahoma
- Arkansas
- Distances/costs associated with transport
A focus of the presentation were the benefits which include:
- Provides producers an alternative for litter management
- Reduces litter piles outside the barn
- An income source (or barter) to pay for bedding
- 100,000 tons/year = 3 million lbs P (phosphorous) / year exported
Poultry litter export from 2006 - 2014 was 822,659.5 tons (this figures equals):
- 34,000 semi loads
- > 10 semi loads / day (7 days a week)
- 24.6 million pounds of P
The presentation noted in terms of non-point/point trading:
- More questions than answers
- Agricultural stormwater exemption – how does it play a role?
- How do we determine “x” for “y”?
- What practices are eligible?
The presentation noted that a majority of the poultry producers are also cow-calf farmers. Therefore, the presentation also references:
- Stream/pond exclusion
- Stream bank stabilization
- Stream crossing
The presenters asked whether trading could be utilized as an additional “carrot” to implement other best management practices? They also ask what is the timing on banking of credits (i.e., when do they start)?
Click here to download a copy of the slides.
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