Many municipal wastewater treatment plants (WWTP) have had to upgrade their facilities in order to meet the total maximum daily load (TMDL) for nitrogen and phosphorus entering the Chesapeake Bay Watershed. Some of those, including the City of York WWTP, now have excess nutrient credits available to sell to parties unable to meet their TMDL. The Pennsylvania Infrastructure Investment Authority (Pennvest) holds quarterly nutrient credit auctions to facilitate matching sellers of excess nutrient credits with buyers in need of credits.
The York City Sewer Authority requested Buchart Horn to enroll them in the nutrient credit auction program and to participate in the quarterly auctions on their behalf. The enrollment process is rather long and challenging, requiring numerous documents from the PADEP to verify the credits are available for sale and also requiring many legal documents related to the seller (Articles of Incorporation, financial statements for prior three years, evidence of ownership, etc.).
Two of the four auctions for 2014 have taken place so far, with the most recent one occurring on June 11th. A total of 42,000 nitrogen credits have been sold at a net price of $93,220.00. While this is a relatively small amount compared to the cost of upgrading the plant to meet the TMDL, it is a way to recover at least a portion of those costs.