Excessive nutrient loading poses significant water quality problems in many water bodies across the country. An important question that must be addressed when nutrient reduction policies are devised is where nutrient reduction targets will be applied within the watershed. This paper examines the cost implications of establishing three possible nutrient reduction targets in different locations along the Fox-Wolf River basin in northeast Wisconsin. A linear programming model calculates the total cost of achieving a 50% phosphorus load reduction target established in various locations throughout the basin. Two strategies establish phosphorus reduction targets for each of the 41 subwatersheds, and the third approach establishes a single 50% target reduction at Green Bay for the entire watershed. The results indicate that achieving target phosphorus reductions at the subwatershed level is over 4 times more expensive than achieving the same percentage phosphorus reduction for the watershed as a whole. ¿ American Geophysical Union 1996