Simplifying Water Quality Trading in Wisconsin.

Stream Restoration & Water Quality Trading Project
Independence, WI

About the Clearinghouse

A centralized location to buy and sell water quality credits

The Wisconsin Water Quality Trading Clearinghouse is a marketplace and facilitator for water quality trading—connecting sellers (landowners and agricultural producers) with buyers (municipal wastewater treatment /stormwater facilities and private industries) to help reduce pollutants, including phosphorus and total suspended solids (TSS), entering surface waters in Wisconsin.

In the past, it has been difficult for trading partners to find each other, but the Wisconsin Water Quality Trading Clearinghouse creates a centralized location for interested buyers and sellers to engage in water quality trading that ensures long-term certainty while minimizing risk for all parties.

Wisconsin Clearinghouse, LLC operates the Wisconsin Water Quality Trading Clearinghouse through an agreement with the Wisconsin Department of Administration. Wisconsin Clearinghouse, LLC is a wholly owned subsidiary of RES (Resource Environmental Solutions). As the nation’s largest ecological restoration company, RES provides environmental mitigation, stormwater and water quality, and climate and flooding resilience solutions with a focus on full delivery, long-term stewardship and guaranteed performance. RES designs, builds, and sustains sites that preserve the environmental balance, restoring our land and waters to enhance lives for generations to come.

In the News

Wisconsin just launched the first marketplace for trading water quality credits. What is that, and how will it cut pollution?
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel - April 7, 2023

Industrial and wastewater facilities may soon find it easier to work with farms to reduce water pollution
Wisconsin Public Radio - March 23, 2023

Water Quality Trading Clearinghouse Contract Established in Wisconsin
Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources - March 29, 2023

New Water Quality Trading Clearinghouse Launches to Make Water Quality Improvements Easier Across Wisconsin
Wisconsin Clearinghouse, LLC / RES - March 29, 2023

“For years, we have heard about the challenges around water quality trading from communities across Wisconsin. Many are interested in utilizing this innovative approach to compliance and watershed restoration but unsure how to find the right landowner partner at the right time, and whether their procurement rules allow them to execute projects efficiently. The Clearinghouse solves those issues and will accelerate the use of nature-based solutions to address impaired water quality.”

-Erin Delawalla, Regional Client Solutions Manager, RES

Buying & Selling Through the Clearinghouse

The Wisconsin Water Quality Trading Clearinghouse formalizes a trading marketplace for buyers and sellers to find each other and reach a mutually beneficial agreement for watershed practices to reduce total suspended solids (TSS) and phosphorus.

The Clearinghouse seeks to remove barriers for landowners to participate in trading and ensure buyers that water quality trading will provide as much long-term certainty of compliance as a facility upgrade, hopefully at a lower cost and with more co-benefits.

Buying Credits

Credit buyers (municipal wastewater/stormwater treatment facilities and private industries) can submit a request for credits on the Clearinghouse portal. The Clearinghouse team will review that request and determine whether credits are currently available to meet the request. If additional credits are needed to satisfy the buyer’s credit need, the Clearinghouse will seek out and develop credit-generating projects in the relevant watersheds.

Within sixty days or less, the Clearinghouse will provide a credit proposal for the buyer to consider relative to other compliance options. If no credits are available after the sixty-day period, the buyer can determine whether to afford the Clearinghouse additional time to find credits or pursue an alternative compliance strategy.

Getting started buying:

Register on the portal.
Enter your facility credit need or use the portal calculator to estimate your credit need.
Submit your request, and the Clearinghouse staff will reach out to you to inform you of credit availability in your watershed.

Generating & Selling Credits

Landowners interested in installing water quality best management practices (BMPs) to prevent soil erosion and nutrient runoff on their land can offset or eliminate the cost of these projects by generating and selling credits through the Clearinghouse.

Getting started generating/selling:

Register on the portal.
Provide information on the water quality best management practices (BMPs) to prevent soil erosion and nutrient runoff you are interested in pursuing on your land.
Submit your initial credit registration, and the Clearinghouse staff will reach out to discuss the options to complete your credit verification and sell your credits.

Credit Availability Map

The Credit Availability Map will be updated as new credits are registered. If you are interested in purchasing credits, please email admin@wiclearinghouse.org or call 608-844-3691 to inquire about available credit quantity, price, and credit duration.

The Wisconsin Water Quality Trading Clearinghouse’s Credit Availability Map is an interactive application displaying geospatial data providing location data for WPDES-permitted facilities in the state of Wisconsin. Other relevant data includes HUC12 subwatersheds where water quality credits are currently registered, along with other related information for facilities to consider when evaluating water quality trading as a compliance solution.

If a HUC12 is indicated to have credits available, that means that a credit generator has created a practice registration on the Clearinghouse. It does not mean that the practice is fully approved by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, nor that the practice has already been installed.

Launch Credit Availability Map

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What is water quality trading?

Water quality trading is one compliance strategy for Wisconsin Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (WPDES) permittees that have a water quality-based effluent limitation (WQBELs), usually for phosphorus or total suspended solids (TSS). These permittees could include a Municipal Stormwater System (MS4), a municipal wastewater treatment plant (WWTP), or an industrial wastewater treatment plant. Instead of making upgrades to a plant or a storm sewer system to reduce pollutants in wastewater or stormwater, permittees will purchase credits from a project within the same watershed that reduces pollutants before they enter the water supply (also called a nonpoint-to-point trade). The trade is the relationship between a buyer of credits and a generator of credits.

There can also be trades between two WPDES permittees, including one that has made improvements above and beyond what was required by their permit, so they have excess pollutant reductions that they can sell to another permittee. This is called a point-to-point trade.

What is the Wisconsin Water Quality Trading Clearinghouse?

The Wisconsin Water Quality Trading Clearinghouse is a marketplace and facilitator for water quality trading, connecting sellers (landowners and agricultural producers) with buyers (municipal wastewater treatment/stormwater facilities and private industries) to help reduce pollutants entering surface waters in Wisconsin.

The Wisconsin legislature passed 2019 Wisconsin Act 151, which requires the Wisconsin Department of Administration to partner with a third party to facilitate a marketplace for water quality trading.

I’m a landowner in Wisconsin. How can I take advantage of this new program to fund projects on my land?

Landowners can register their property on the Clearinghouse portal if they are interested in generating credits by installing BMPs. The Clearinghouse staff will reach out to you to discuss the potential project, quantify the estimated credit potential, and assess the market demand for credits.

Landowners can work with a consultant of their choosing to design and permit the project and set their own price for credits. The Clearinghouse will help connect landowners (sellers) with potential buyers. After a buyer is identified for your project, the Clearinghouse will provide a 3-party agreement for all parties to sign on to, for the term agreed upon by the landowner and the buyer.

I’m a permittee in Wisconsin. How do I get a cost estimate for credits?

The first step is to create an account through the Clearinghouse website and notify the Clearinghouse of your credit need. The Clearinghouse will reach out to inform you if there are already credits available in your watershed.

If there are credits available

The Clearinghouse will request a firm credit price from each potential generator for evaluation by the Buyer. If the buyer would like to move forward with the trade, the buyer can accept the generator’s offer or provide a counteroffer at a different price to the generator. Following the agreement of both parties, a three-party agreement will be executed between the Clearinghouse, the buyer, and the generator.

If there are not credits available

To reduce the transaction timeline, the Clearinghouse will request a commitment letter from buyer, defining the terms that the buyer would deem acceptable for a trade. For example, this could include a request that credits be more cost effective than other alternative compliance obligations. If the Clearinghouse is successful in identifying a project that meets those terms, the Buyer commits to moving forward with trading through the Commitment letter.

Depending on which watershed you are located in and the timing of your credit need, the Clearinghouse may be able to provide a cost range for credits even if no credits are currently identified and available.

How long is the contract for the Clearinghouse?

In March 2023, Wisconsin Clearinghouse, LLC signed a five-year contract with the Wisconsin Department of Administration to administer the Clearinghouse, with a one-year optional renewal period.

How much is Wisconsin Clearinghouse, LLC being paid?

Wisconsin Clearinghouse, LLC is not being paid by the Wisconsin Department of Administration. The Clearinghouse is permitted to charge a fee for transactions that are processed through the Clearinghouse, based on a fixed fee structure agreed to by the Wisconsin Department of Administration and Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. The cost to process a transaction through the Clearinghouse will function like a brokerage fee (% of total credit transaction), depending on the exact size of the contract.

Who will carry out the permitting, design, and construction work needed to produce credits?

The Clearinghouse and its affiliated partners can provide all of the needed support for permitting, design, and construction to simplify the process for credit generators. Wisconsin Clearinghouse, LLC has built a large network of Partners and Friends of the Clearinghouse that will help bring credits to the marketplace, provide support to buyers interested in trading, and implement projects on the ground.

Please see the Buying and Selling section for more details.

*Some of the information used in this FAQ is based on the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources water quality trading web page.

Partners & Friends of the Clearinghouse

Partners include engineering firms and agronomists that can act as subcontractors to the Clearinghouse to help Buyers and Generators develop a strategy for trading.

Friends are non-profit organizations or government entities that will help connect landowners with the Clearinghouse to generate credits for purchase.