Total Maximum Daily Load TMDL

Deposited by countless private citizens, moreover, lawn care toxins have also proven far more difficult to measure and far more resistant to traditional techniques of pollution control. The political momentum for water quality regulation lags far behind this changing land-use reality. The shift in the last few years to decentralized decision-making that allowed for the implementation of the Clean Water Act, for example, has not come to terms with this change. In this case, the Clean Water Act mandates the creation of total maximum daily load (TMDL) criteria, standards for cleaning up nonpoint sources such as farms, suburban developments, and other nonindustrial sites. These standards are drawn up by water quality management committees. 

In 1996, the US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) set up a federal advisory committee composed of members with interests ranging from the environmental and agricultural communities to state and local governments. The committee s objective was to recommend ways to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of state, territorial, tribal, and USEPA total maximum daily load (TMDL ) programs. 

USEPA]. US Environmental Protection Agency. 1998. Report of the Federal Advisory Committee on the Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) Program. The National Advisory Council for Environmental Policy and Technology (NACEPT). United States Environmental Protection Agency, Office of the Administrator (160IF) EPA 100-R-98-006, July 1998, Washington, DC, USA. 

Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) Under Section 303(d) of the 1972 Clean Water Act, states, territories, and authorized tribes were required to develop a list of impaired waters. The impaired waters do not meet water quality standards that states, territories, and authorized tribes have set for them, even after point sources of pollution have installed the minimum required levels of pollution control technology. The law requires that these jurisdictions establish priority rankings for waters on the lists and develop TMDLs for these waters. 

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. (1999b). Total maximum daily load (tmdl) program. Office of Water, Washinton, DC (On line). Available at http //www.epa.g0v/OWOW/tmdl (December 20, 1999). 

A total maximum daily load (TMDL) may be resorted to in situations where the implementation of technology-based effluent limits still allow exceedences in water quality contaminant limits. The concept of a TMDL hinges on the concept of allocation of pollution contributions for subsequoit regulation among the relevant array of industrial and/or municipal dischargers. 

The CWA requires states to identify impaired watersheds and develop total maximum daily loads (TMDLs) for the affected watersheds. TMDL is a calculation of the maximum amount of a pollutant that a waterbody can receive and stdl safely meet water quality standards. 

A determination that stormwater controls are not necessary based on either (A) Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) approved or established by ERA that addresses the pollutant(s) of concern for construction activities or (B) For non-impaired waters that do not require TMDLs, an equivalent analysis that determines allocations for small construction sites for the pollutant(s) of concern or that determines that such allocations are not needed to protect water quality based on consideration of existing in-stream concentrations, expected growth in pollutant contributions from all soruces, and a margin of safety. 

Clean Water Act Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs)... 

EPA. Guidance for Water Quality-Based Decisions The TMDL Process, EPA 440/4-91-001, 1991 and Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) Program, EPA-84-F-00-004, 2000, Office of Water, Washington, DC. EPA Office of Water Website, 2001, http //www.epa.gov/owow/tmdl/status.html. 

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