Mitigation Banking - Creating Water Quality Credits

A unit of pollutant reduction that can be used to improve water quality: 

• How they work: A source that controls its pollution levels can sell credits to another source that needs to comply with regulations. Oysters in bioremediation generate Water Quality credits.
• How they are generated: A point source can generate credits by controlling its discharge, or a nonpoint source can generate credits by installing best management practices. 
• What they are used for: Water quality credits are a cost-effective way to meet water quality goals and encourage conservation. They are often used to address nitrogen and phosphorus pollution, but can also be used for other purposes, such as protecting salmon. 

Oyster reefs are vital to marine ecosystems, providing habitat for diverse marine species, improving water quality through natural filtration, and offering coastal protection against erosion. By deploying 1,300 acres of living oyster reef in strategically targeted locations, we can significantly reduce pollution and enhance the ecological health of San Francisco Bay, which will contribute to increased biodiversity and greater resilience to climate change and rising sea levels.

  Year-old Triploid Pacific oysters utilized in OCF's bioremediation methods start off filtering approximately 50 gallons per day. These oysters grow rapidly and robustly, living over 10 years as they don’t use up energy with reproductive processes and grow to filter more than 100 gallons per day. The restoration of 1,300 acres of reef would enable 140 million oysters to collectively filter an astounding 1.3 billion gallons of ocean water daily.

  Mitigation banking is a proven approach that allows developers and municipalities to compensate for environmental impacts by proactively restoring, creating, or enhancing natural habitats. By implementing OCF’s mitigation banking program, the City of San Francisco could avoid fines and instead allocate funds to establish 1,300 acres of oyster reef. Afterall it was San Francisco that dredged them for fill, paved market street and otherwise ate all of the existing oysters.  This strategy not only addresses the penalties but also transforms them into a constructive environmental outcome. In the event of future sewage spills, the city could easily quantify the gallons spilled and purchase additional mitigation banking credits to directly offset those impacts.