Agricultural Water Quality Outcomes

Agricultural water quality is critical to resilient food systems, healthy watersheds, and credible corporate sustainability commitments. Nutrient runoff, sediment loss, and hydrologic variability require solutions grounded in regional science. 

Through our EcoHarvest market program, we connect on-farm conservation practices to measurable water quality outcomes using transparent and rigorous science. Through water quality reporting, buyers can bridge the gap between field level outcomes and watershed improvements – showcasing how practices at the field level can improve water quality at the regional level. Impacts from these improvements are turned into Scope 3 outcomes available to buyers in the form of pounds of pollutant reduced per year. 

Why Agricultural Water Measurement Matters

Practices like cover crops, reduced/no-till, and increased nutrient management can reduce nitrogen, phosphorus, and sediment loss. However, water outcomes vary by soil type, climate, and watershed conditions. 

For farmers, corporates, and conservation partners, credible measurement is essential to: 

• Support water stewardship commitments 
• Strengthen Scope 3 sustainability strategies 
• Enable ecosystem services markets 
• Improve transparency and comparability in reporting 

Tracking practices alone is not enough. Quantifying modeled nutrient and sediment reductions provides the scientific foundation needed for defensible environmental claims.  

ESMC’s Pollution Load Estimation Tool (PLET) Module

To support consistent quantification of agricultural water quality outcomes for EcoHarvest, ESMC developed a Pollution Load Estimation Tool (PLET) module. This tool allows users to: 

• Estimate nitrogen, phosphorus, and sediment load reductions 
• Incorporate regionally calibrated watershed modeling science 
• Reflect differences in soils, cropping systems, climate, and hydrology 
• Support scalable implementation across programs and supply chains 

By translating conservation practices into modeled pollution load reductions, PLET strengthens the credibility of water-related ecosystem service outcomes. 

In 2026, ESMC published PLET v2 which aggregates field-level conservation outcomes to the watershed (HUC-12) scale. These outcomes are evaluated against science-based watershed targets informed by published research and aligned with TMDL objectives. This approach enables ESMC to translate on-farm water quality improvements into monetizable watershed-scale credits.   

ESMC’s PLET module is a Python-based implementation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) PLET framework, integrated into the EcoHarvest Monitoring, Reporting, and Verification (MRV) platform. 

Water Outcomes for Farmers and Corporates 

ESMC creates opportunities to produce water quality outcomes through EcoHarvest which includes the following: 

For Farmers

• Payments for practices that create water quality improvements 
• Alignment with existing agronomic practices 
• Participation in emerging water-focused ecosystem services markets 

 

For Corporates

• Science-based quantification supporting water stewardship and supply chain strategies 
• Transparent methodologies aligned with sustainability reporting 
• Greater confidence in environmental outcome claims 

Built on Scientific Integrity

ESMC’s water quality work and outcomes are grounded in established watershed modeling research and designed for continuous improvement. Our approach emphasizes: 

• Regional calibration at the HUC-12 scale 
• Documentation and defensible methodology 
• Alignment with ecosystem services standards 

 

Learn More: Presentations and Reports

Contact our team to request a technical briefing or explore how PLET supports credible agricultural water quality outcomes at scale. 

Read more in our reports on the PLET module and watch webinars and trainings.  

• From Field to Watershed: Scientific Foundations of Watershed Models and the Evolution of ESMC’s PLET Tool: Dr. Tapasya Babu and Dr. Matthew Helmers (Iowa State University) discussed why watershed-scale science matters to understand effectiveness of BMP outcomes since most nutrient and sediment impacts occur beyond the field. They highlighted how markets, regulators, and supply chains require watershed-relevant signals and that models help bridge field actions to downstream outcomes. (January 2026)