Case Study Research on Offsets for Water Quality Management /

There, the synergy between the nitrogen trading market and the carbon offset market was a success factor for the uptake of the program. [...] For example, in the Tualatin River watershed, approximately one third of the land is used for agriculture and the NPS thermal load contributes nearly 88 per cent of the anthropogenic heat load in the basin (Oregon Department of Environmental Quality [DEQ], 2007). [...] Existence of a program administrator: Most of the trading programs reviewed are managed by a non-profit or watershed authority, with the exception of the Lake Taupō nitrogen trading program, where the Lake Taupō Protection Project Joint Committee acts as the program lead. [...] The effect of this reduction in nitrogen discharge to the lake is difficult to assess given the soil profile of the catchment where the land-use changes that occurred some decades ago may continue to increase nitrogen inputs into the lake via groundwater (Environment Waikato, 2007). [...] Eligible actions to offset the thermal loading and comply with the TMDL requirements include: tree planting to increase streamside shading and augmenting flow to increase the amount of water available in the river (Porter et al., 2014).