This case examines the risks and opportunities for stakeholders involved in an experimental water quality management program in Wisconsin, USA. This program pays for pounds of pollution reduced through soil conservation practices on farm fields and other high-runoff areas across the landscape—nonpoint sources of pollution—by redirecting funds from the sewerage plant and municipal point sources of pollution. Uncertain monitoring and modeling of pollution sources used for program payments and accountability create perceived and real risks to program participants and the environment, including the threat of regulatory enforcement, lost revenue, and failure to achieve environmental outcomes. On the other hand, in this case study, regulatory flexibility also opened a space for stakeholder dialog and programmatic cooperation that could lead to more adaptive and locally acceptable watershed pollution control in the future.
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December 31 2018
Innovation in Outcomes-Based Water Quality Policy: A Case Study from the Yahara Watershed, Wisconsin, USA
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Special Collection: Water Science and Collaboration
Chloe Wardropper,
Chloe Wardropper
†
1Department of Natural Resources and Society, University of Idaho, Moscow, ID 83844-1139, USA
Email: [email protected]
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Sean Gillon,
Sean Gillon
2Food Systems & Society, Marylhurst University, Marylhurst, OR 97036, USA
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Adena Rissman
Adena Rissman
3Department of Forest and Wildlife Ecology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA
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†Formerly Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA
Email: [email protected]
Case Studies in the Environment (2018) 2 (1): 1–7.
Citation
Chloe Wardropper, Sean Gillon, Adena Rissman; Innovation in Outcomes-Based Water Quality Policy: A Case Study from the Yahara Watershed, Wisconsin, USA. Case Studies in the Environment 31 December 2018; 2 (1): 1–7. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/cse.2018.001222
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