Newtrient Applauds Wisconsin State Senate Passage of Bill to Improve Water Quality at a Lower Cost to All

The Wisconsin State Senate unanimously passed legislation that will boost Wisconsin’s water quality trading programs, leading to more financially sustainable ways to improve water quality.

The legislation is designed to increase participation in Wisconsin’s current water quality programs by enabling a third-party Clearinghouse to facilitate water quality trading. The Clearinghouse will provide an extra element of certainty and accessibility needed for farms, industry and the wastewater treatment plants to work together toward shared water quality goals.

“I am encouraged to see continued support for legislation that enables market-based solutions to solve environmental challenges,” said Steven Rowe, CEO of Newtrient. Since the bill’s introduction, it has received support from a broad and diverse group of organizations including Dairy Business Association, Clean Wisconsin, The Nature Conservancy, Wisconsin Water Alliance, Wisconsin Cheesemakers Association and Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce (WMC).

The advancement of this bill creates a path to put Wisconsin at the forefront of market-driven, clean water solutions. Through this approach, farms of all sizes can be incentivized to voluntarily adopt new practices and technologies beyond what they’re already doing, small manufacturers and food companies remain in operation and municipalities don’t pass along multi-million dollar wastewater treatment plant upgrade costs to taxpayers.

“This is a step in the right direction for agriculture, the community and the environment. Newtrient will continue to support this bill as it advances to the state Assembly.” said Steven Rowe.

Rowe thanked the bill’s lead authors and champions, Senator Rob Cowles (R), Senator Jerry Petrowski (R) and Senator Mark Miller (D).