Louisiana Administrative Code › Title 33 - ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY › Part IX - Water Quality › Subpart 2 - The Louisiana Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (LPDES) Program › Chapter 26 - Water Quality Trading › Section IX-2603 - General Definitions

Current through Register Vol. 50, No. 6, June 20, 2024
Best Management Practices (BMPs)
-schedules
					 of activities, prohibitions of practices, maintenance procedures, and other
					 management practices designed to prevent or reduce the pollution of the waters
					 of the state, including; treatment requirements, operating procedures, and
					 practices to control plant site runoff, spillage, leaks, sludge, waste
					 disposal, or drainage from raw material storage.
BMP/Project Effectiveness
-the
					 quantitative/qualitative evaluation of source pollution reduction after
					 implementing a BMP(s)/project that is measured over time and accounts for any
					 decrease in pollution capture due to natural and/or anthropogenic
					 phenomenon.
BMP Quality Standards
-specifications for
					 the design, implementation, maintenance, and performance tracking of a
					 particular BMP to ensure the estimated water quality benefits of an eligible
					 project are achieved and allow for verification that the BMP is performing as
					 described in an approved WQT plan.
Credit
-a measured, modeled, or estimated
					 unit of pollution reduction per unit of time that represents the specific
					 pollutant reduction generated by a BMP at a specific location, as adjusted by
					 attenuation/delivery factors, trading ratios, and baseline requirements as
					 appropriate.
Credit Certification
-the formal
					 application and approval process for a potential credit-generating project.
					 (Certification occurs after project review.)
Credit-Generating Projects
-activities
					 undertaken for the purpose of generating credits by point or nonpoint sources,
					 including, but not limited to, installing advanced treatment technology,
					 curtailing discharges, and BMPs.
Credit Life
-the period from the date a
					 credit is certified and becomes available for sale (i.e., effective date) to
					 the date that the credit is no longer valid (i.e., expiration date).
Credit Reserve Pool
-credits that are
					 currently being generated and that have been reviewed, certified, registered,
					 and are available for trade during the credit life.
Eligible Project
-implementation of a
					 pollutant management strategy; this may include nonpoint source land treatment
					 BMPs, integrated coastal protection and restoration projects, as well as point
					 source practices, modifications, or technology installation to reduce its
					 pollutant discharge by a particular amount for a particular period of
					 time.
Estimated Credit
-a credit for pollutant
					 load reductions where treatment methods do not reasonably allow influent and
					 effluent water quality to be measured. All credits that are not measured are
					 estimated credits.
Measured Credit
-a credit for pollutant
					 reduction that can be directly monitored using water quality, including
					 effluent samples.
Point of Compliance
-for point sources
					 discharging to surface waters, this is the location at which compliance shall
					 be measured in accordance with limits specified in the Louisiana pollutant
					 discharge elimination system (LPDES) permit.
Project Review
-the process of confirming
					 that a credit-generating project has completed the elements that ensure the
					 project provides the proposed water quality improvement.
Public Conservation Funds
-public funds
					 that are targeted to support voluntary natural resource protection or
					 restoration. Examples of public conservation funds include, but are not limited
					 to, United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) cost share programs, United
					 States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
					 section
					 319 grant funds, United States
					 Fish and Wildlife Service Partners for Fish and Wildlife Program funds, State
					 Wildlife Grants, and state restoration grants. Public funds that are not
					 considered public conservation funds include: public loans intended to be used
					 for water quality infrastructure projects, such as Clean Water State Revolving
					 Funds, USDA Rural Development funds, and utility sewer storm water and surface
					 water management fees.
Quantifiable
-the amount, rate, and
					 characteristics of a discharge reduction that can be measured through an
					 accurate, reliable, and replicable method, procedure, or set of calculations
					 established by an applicable requirement or approved by the department.
Registry
-a centralized and easily
					 accessible public ledger wherein credit information and accompanying
					 documentation is stored to document credit issuance, transfer, and
					 holdings.
Trading Area
-a geographic area where
					 credits can be bought and sold.
Trading Baseline
-the combined pollutant
					 load reductions, site conditions, and/or BMP installation requirements that
					 shall be met prior to trading.
Trading Ratios
-numeric values used to
					 adjust the credits generated for a seller and the credits available to meet the
					 obligation of a buyer. Trading ratios account for factors such as, but not
					 limited to, in-stream attenuation or uptake of a pollutant between the
					 locations of the generator and the user of credits, different forms or types of
					 a pollutant, risk of BMP failure, uncertainty as to BMP performance, and net
					 environmental benefit.
Water Quality Benefit
-the water quality
					 improvement that can reasonably be attributable to BMPs (for point
					 source-to-nonpoint source trades), wastewater treatment technologies, or
					 practices (point source-to-point source trades) installed at a site.
Water Quality Trading or Trade
-a
					 transaction that involves the sale or other exchange, through a contractual
					 agreement, of water quality credits generated from one location that have been
					 verified, certified, registered, and used at another location within a trading
					 area.
Water Quality Trading Plan
-a
					 permittee-level document that contains the details of implementing a trade. The
					 WQT plan may be based on an existing watershed trading framework. In the
					 absence of a watershed trading framework, the WQT plan will include all
					 specific details of the trading processes and performance standards.
Watershed-
an area of land that drains all
					 waters and rainfall to a common outlet such as a lake, river, stream, or other
					 waters.
Watershed Trading
					 Framework
-watershed-level document that contains the specific details
					 of implementing a trade as it applies to multiple permittees trading within a
					 watershed.
AUTHORITY NOTE:
					 Promulgated in accordance with
					 R.S.
					 30:2074(B)(9).