CRESTONE, CO, June 26, 2015 -- A new report published by the University of Maryland (UOM) calls for a more efficient, market-based approach to financing pollution reductions mandated by the Environmental Protection Agency in cleaning up the Chesapeake Bay and also affirms the uses of agricultural treatments from Bion Environmental Technologies.
Produced by UOM's Environmental Finance Center, Maryland's Chesapeake Bay Restoration Financing Strategy Final Report is the second in a series of reports focused on the scale and cost of implementing federally-mandated requirements to clean up and protect Chesapeake Bay. The report analyzes how state-based financing and revenue resources can be most efficiently and effectively invested in Bay restoration and water conservation activities.
The conclusion of the report is a call for harnessing private technology and innovation, such as that pioneered by Bion, to provide incentives for public benefits. "By changing the foundation of how public resources are invested, the state is in a position to not only achieve pollution reduction targets, but to do so in the most cost-effective way possible," the report states.
Livestock waste is acknowledged as one of the largest sources of excess nutrients in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. By using livestock waste treatment solutions like Bion's, states in the Chesapeake Bay watershed can provide large-scale reductions at dramatically lower costs than other sectors, such as municipal wastewater treatment and stormwater.
Bion's technology is approved to generate verified nutrient reductions from livestock waste that can be used as a qualified offset to EPA nutrient reduction mandates. Bion proposes to replace stormwater reduction mandates that carry high costs and relatively low benefits to taxpayers and municipalities with low-cost agricultural solutions that yield high environmental benefits in the treatment of waste from livestock and poultry.
See also:
"Scientists study cause of major underwater grass comeback in Chesapeake Bay"
"NOAA, partners forecast 'dead zone' conditions in Gulf of Mexico, Chesapeake Bay"
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