The D.C. Department of Energy and Environment (DOEE) is working to develop and implement the cutting-edge $12.75 million Stormwater Retention Credit (SRC) Purchase Agreement Program. The program will give property owners and others who voluntarily install runoff-reducing green infrastructure the option to sell SRCs from these projects to DOEE.
The SRC Purchase Agreement Program builds on the innovative SRC trading program established by DOEE as part of the stormwater management regulations that took effect in January 2014. Under these regulations, large development sites must reduce stormwater runoff but can comply with half of their obligation by buying SRCs from voluntary green infrastructure projects. SRC generators will still be free to sell SRCs to regulated development sites, but they will also have the option of selling SRCs to DOEE. In effect, this creates a price floor in the SRC market and provides some certainty about the return that an investment in green infrastructure may provide.
“The SRC Purchase Agreement Program will mobilize millions of dollars of private investment in river-protecting green infrastructure by increasing investors’ confidence in the profitability of these kinds of projects,” said DOEE Director Tommy Wells. “Though green infrastructure has environmental benefits throughout the District, this innovative program enables us to leverage private investment in targeted areas to provide maximum benefit to our waterbodies.”
