39-3640. WATER QUALITY INNOVATION AND POLLUTANT TRADING. (1) It is the policy of the state of Idaho to support water quality trading and other voluntary, cost-effective, and innovative means of attaining and maintaining water quality standards established pursuant to this chapter.
(2) The provisions of this title, water quality standards, and total maximum daily loads and discharge permitting shall, where the department deems appropriate, be administered to support opportunities for water quality trading and other voluntary, innovative means of attaining and maintaining water quality standards established pursuant to this chapter.
(3) "Water quality trade" and "water quality trading" mean a voluntary transaction whereby a person who discharges or proposes to discharge a pollutant into a water body pursuant to a permit or license meets regulatory requirements by obtaining pollutant reductions from another source.
(4) The department is authorized to investigate, review, approve, modify, or deny water quality trades, trading frameworks, and the means of verifying water quality pollutant trading and other water quality attainment innovations that contribute to the attainment of water quality standards.
History:
[39-3640, added 2021, ch. 94, sec. 1, p. 324.]