The Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation will study the possibility of creating a cap-and-trade system to reduce the amount of phosphorous pollution that runs into Lake Champlain from rivers and streams.
Commissioner David Mears says the state is going to spend about $100,000 to hire experts to determine whether a phosphorus trading program might work in much the same way such a system helped reduce sulfur dioxide emissions, a component of acid rain.
Some credit the federal acid rain program with cutting in half the amount of sulfur dioxide pumped into the atmosphere.
Some say the biggest challenge to cleaning up Lake Champlain is reducing phosphorous pollution.
Mears tells Vermont Public Radio a contractor to do the study will be hired by year's end.
Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.