---
title: what stormwater credit trading pays the host
canonical_url: https://ensurance.app/guide/what-stormwater-credit-trading-pays-the-host
markdown_url: https://ensurance.app/guide/what-stormwater-credit-trading-pays-the-host.md
subtitle: "a regulated site's retention fee can become a recurring check to the landowner whose rain garden or wetland holds the water"
category: ecosystem-services
---

# what stormwater credit trading pays the host

*a regulated site's retention fee can become a recurring check to the landowner whose rain garden or wetland holds the water*

**Stormwater credit trading** pays a landowner for rain their ground holds on behalf of someone else. In Washington, DC, a property that builds a rain garden, a bioretention cell, or a small planted wetland can have the District certify one credit for each gallon of retention per year. The owner sells those credits to a regulated development that would otherwise pay the District $5.01 per gallon-year. The host gets a recurring check. The buyer gets a smaller bill.

The [stormwater fee post](/guide/what-a-stormwater-utility-fee-is-paying-for?from=guide) covered the buyer. This one covers the parcel that gets paid.

## what stormwater credit trading is

A large new building or major renovation in the District has to hold a set volume of rain on its site. The rules let it meet part of that requirement somewhere else. Whatever it does not hold at home becomes an **off-site retention volume**: an annual obligation written into its stormwater plan, due every year, and passed to each new owner until the site is redeveloped.

The District Department of Energy and Environment (DOEE) runs the market that fills it. A **stormwater retention credit** is one gallon of retention capacity for one year, produced by green infrastructure on a parcel that has no requirement of its own. DOEE certifies the credits, gives each a serial number, and records every transfer. A credit does not expire until it is used.

The credits a regulated site can buy, which DOEE calls high-impact, come from new, voluntary projects in the MS4 area. That is the part of the city where storm drains run separately to the rivers instead of into the combined sewer.

## their fee, your check

| | the regulated site (buyer) | the host (seller) |
|---|---|---|
| **What they have** | A retention obligation it chose not to meet on site | Ground that can hold rain it is not required to hold |
| **What it costs or pays** | $5.01 per gallon-year to DOEE, or a negotiated credit price | A negotiated credit price, or DOEE's price-lock if the host has an agreement |
| **How often** | Every year on the anniversary of its final inspection | Every year the practice is certified and maintained |
| **What it depends on** | Someone else's soil and plants staying in working order | Keeping its own soil and plants in working order |

The left column is an expense on a building's operating statement. The right column is income on the host's. Same gallon, same year.

*Their lower bill is your income.*

## what the host actually gets paid

Three numbers set the range. None of them is the market price.

:::stat
$5.01 | DOEE in-lieu fee per gallon-year (Aug 1, 2026) — the buyer's ceiling | warning
$2.03 | DOEE price-lock, non-tidal MS4, years 1–6 — a floor, not the market | accent
$1.77 | DOEE price-lock, tidal MS4, years 1–6 — a floor, not the market | accent
$0.42 | DOEE price-lock, years 7–12
:::

**The ceiling.** A buyer can always pay DOEE's in-lieu fee instead, currently $5.01 per gallon for one year and adjusted each August. No buyer has a reason to pay a host more than that. DOEE describes the fee as the effective ceiling of the credit market.

**The floor.** Under DOEE's **price-lock program**, a new voluntary project in the MS4 area can sign a purchase agreement before construction. DOEE then commits to buy that project's credits at a fixed price: $2.03 in years 1 through 6 in the non-tidal MS4 area, $1.77 in the tidal area, and $0.42 in years 7 through 12. Combined sewer projects are not eligible. The agreement is an option, not an obligation. The host can still sell to any buyer, and in years 1 through 6 DOEE may add a payment on top of a market sale, by formula and within a cap.

**The market.** Between those two numbers, buyer and seller negotiate. Every deal sets its own price, and DOEE posts final sale prices in its public SRC Registry. Look there before you model anything. This post will not quote one.

For scale, DOEE's own example is a site with 1,000 gallons of eligible retention. That site can receive 3,000 credits every three years, or 1,000 a year. At the non-tidal price-lock floor, that is $2,030 a year in years 1 through 6 and $420 a year in years 7 through 12. At the ceiling, the buyer would have paid DOEE $5,010 for the same year of compliance. That is arithmetic on DOEE's published numbers, not a quote. A negotiated sale lands wherever the two parties agree.

Two cautions before anyone counts on the floor. In the first two three-year cycles, a price-lock project has to keep its credits listed on the open market for 18 months before it can sell them to DOEE. And DOEE's price-lock page currently says it has no SRC funding opportunities open. Confirm with DOEE that agreements are being signed before you plan around one.

:::johnson
**the host sells retention, not land.** A regulated site that would pay $5.01 per gallon-year buys a gallon held on your parcel instead. Each time the rain garden or wetland passes inspection and is recertified, you have more to sell.

[see the clean water agent →](/clean-water.ensurance?from=guide)
:::

## years 7 to 12 are a maintenance check

Read the price-lock schedule as two jobs. The higher price in years 1 through 6 lands while the cost of building the practice is still fresh. The drop to $0.42 in years 7 through 12 is sized for something smaller: keeping it working.

That later money is still operating income. The host has not sold the parcel, an easement, or a development right. The host is paid, year by year, for soil that stays loose, plants that stay alive, and inlets that stay clear. If that stops, the checks stop.

## where the credits land on the host's books

**Net operating income** is income after operating expenses. Recurring credit sales sit on the income side of that line, and the maintenance contract sits on the expense side. The [expense series](/guide/what-net-operating-income-actually-counts?from=guide) reads the same statement from the building owner's chair.

| deposit | what it is here | who pays | net operating income? |
|---|---|---|---|
| **Product sold** | Certified credits sold under a price-lock agreement | DOEE, at the locked price | Yes, while the practice stays certified |
| **The neighbor's check** | Certified credits sold on the open market | A regulated site avoiding the $5.01 fee, at a negotiated price | Yes, while the practice stays certified |
| **More rent** | None from the credit itself | No one. A credit does not raise the rent on the host's building | No. Do not model it that way |
| **Capital** | Selling the parcel, or an easement on it | A buyer of the land or the right | No. It is a one-time capital event, not this line |

The neighbor's check is the line most hosts miss. It also stays collectible longer than it looks. The buyer's obligation is annual, runs with its land, and lasts until that site is redeveloped. A building that buys credits this year will need them again next year.

A host does not have to build the practice alone. DOEE points property owners to SRC aggregators who partner with them on credit-generating projects. The split between host and aggregator is a private contract. Read it with the same care as a lease.

DOEE says it will prioritize price-lock funding for land owned by nonprofits: churches, cemeteries, schools, and similar institutions. Those are often the large, lightly built parcels that can hold the most rain.

## the living thing doing the work

The credit is a number in a DOEE database. What holds the gallon is a shallow basin of engineered soil, the roots that keep it open, and plants that survive both a week of standing water and an August drought. In a small wetland, it is the saturated ground and the vegetation that slow the water and take up what it carries.

DOEE certifies credits for up to three years at a time. Each certification needs a maintenance contract, or proof the owner can do the work, covering every day of that period, plus a passed DOEE inspection within the prior six months. A practice that fails inspection can have its credits retired. A host that lets certification lapse for more than six months loses eligibility.

So the host is not selling a promise about rain. They are selling the present condition of a living system, renewed every certification cycle.

## what this does not do

- **Most cities have no retention-credit market.** This post describes DC's. Elsewhere, ask your utility whether on-site credits exist.
- **A credit does not reduce the host's own stormwater charge.** It is a separate product sold to someone else.
- **The price-lock is not the market price.** It is a floor for hosts with an agreement. Market sales are negotiated under the $5.01 ceiling.
- **No buyer is promised.** A certified credit with no buyer earns nothing until it sells or DOEE buys it.
- **This is not investment, tax, or legal advice.** DOEE's guidebook, its SRC Registry, and your own counsel set the terms.

## where ensurance fits

The rain garden and the wetland exist whether or not anyone buys a certificate. On the host's books they can be a credit sale to DOEE, a check from the building next door, or nothing at all. When that income recurs, it raises net operating income. What [*ensurance*](/specific?from=guide) funds is the living system. It is not the credit, and it is not the trade.

A **specific certificate** funds the present condition of a named place. Here, that is the soil, plants, and holding capacity of one host's rain garden or wetland, so it keeps passing inspection and keeps producing the retention a neighbor pays for. DOEE certifies the credit. The certificate funds the ground that earns it. Nothing here replaces DOEE, its registry, or the in-lieu fee.

## next

- **If you are the building that owes the retention:** [what a stormwater utility fee is paying for](/guide/what-a-stormwater-utility-fee-is-paying-for?from=guide).
- **To follow the water-quality work itself:** [clean-water.ensurance](/clean-water.ensurance?from=guide).
- **If you host this, or a hunting lease, or cash-rented ground:** [how landowners get paid for ecosystem services](/guide/how-landowners-get-paid-for-ecosystem-services?from=guide) is the next post.

## the series

The operating bill:

1. [what net operating income actually counts](/guide/what-net-operating-income-actually-counts?from=guide)
2. [what commercial property operating expenses already include](/guide/what-commercial-property-operating-expenses-already-include?from=guide)
3. [what a stormwater utility fee is paying for](/guide/what-a-stormwater-utility-fee-is-paying-for?from=guide)
4. [what the community rating system changes on a flood policy](/guide/what-the-community-rating-system-changes-on-a-flood-policy?from=guide)
5. [how a property owner pays for nature-based solutions on another parcel](/guide/how-a-property-owner-pays-for-nature-based-solutions-on-another-parcel?from=guide)

The host's income:

1. [what a hunting lease actually is](/guide/what-a-hunting-lease-actually-is?from=guide)
2. [what agrivoltaics pays for twice](/guide/what-agrivoltaics-pays-for-twice?from=guide)
3. [what cash rent is already pricing](/guide/what-cash-rent-is-already-pricing?from=guide)
4. [what stormwater credit trading pays the host](/guide/what-stormwater-credit-trading-pays-the-host?from=guide)
5. [how landowners get paid for ecosystem services](/guide/how-landowners-get-paid-for-ecosystem-services?from=guide)

## sources

[Paying In-Lieu Fee](https://doee.dc.gov/service/paying-lieu-fee) — DC Department of Energy and Environment. $5.01 per gallon for one year, effective August 1, 2026; adjusted annually; the effective ceiling of the credit market.

[SRC Price Lock Program](https://doee.dc.gov/service/src-price-lock-program) — DC Department of Energy and Environment. Non-tidal MS4 $2.03 and tidal MS4 $1.77 for years 1–6; $0.42 for years 7–12; combined sewer area not eligible; sellers keep the option to sell to other buyers; nonprofit land prioritized; no funding opportunities open at the time of writing.

[FAQ: SRC Price Lock Program](https://doee.dc.gov/service/faq-src-price-lock-program) — DC Department of Energy and Environment. Three-year certification cycles, maintenance for the full period, 18-month market listing before selling to DOEE in the first two cycles.

[Stormwater Retention Credit Trading Program](https://doee.dc.gov/service/stormwater-retention-credit-trading-program) — DC Department of Energy and Environment. Off-site retention is annual and transfers with ownership; high-impact credits from voluntary MS4-area projects; credits do not expire until used; SRC aggregators and the SRC Registry.

[SRC Eligibility and Certification Process](https://doee.dc.gov/service/stormwater-retention-credit-eligibility-and-certification-process) — DC Department of Energy and Environment. One credit per gallon of retention per year; up to three years certified at once; the 1,000-gallon example; lapse limit of six months.

[How to Purchase SRCs to Comply with an Offv](https://doee.dc.gov/service/how-purchase-srcs-comply-offv) — DC Department of Energy and Environment. Negotiated prices, public sale-price data in the SRC Registry, annual due date.