In an effort to curb pollution, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has proposed a pollution credit trading system to curb industrial, municipal and agricultural discharges into the nation’s waterways.

The program will help meet the standards required in the Clean Water Act by giving polluters the option to trade water quality reduction permits. While the voluntary program will not ease existing government regulations, it is intended to offer more and cheaper ways to meet the government’s water quality standards.

A number of farm groups are enthusiastic about the program as it would encourage industrial polluters to help farmers develop the best practice methods to reduce runoff problems. As an example, you could use the trading system to finance the construction of wetlands, buffer zones or invest in other relatively low-cost techniques such as no-till to keep pollutants from flowing into streams. Administered by state agencies, the EPA program is expected to go into effect around July 1.

OTHER NO-TILL NEWS...

• Syngenta Seeds has developed a program that allows growers to easily access localized growing degree units (GDU).

The marketer of NK Brand Seed Products has developed a patented electronic device that measures GDU’s and tallies them as they accumulate in 10 Midwestern states. The NK Brand Agrometer hangs on a wall like a clock and is connected to an outdoor digital temperature sensor at many farm supplier outlets.

• Between now and Aug. 31, you can sign up at an “early-bird” savings of $25 per person for the 11th annual National…