Water Quality Update:
New and "Improved" TMDL?
Over 20,000 waterbodies across America have been identified as being polluted. These waters include over 300,000 river and shoreline miles and 5 million acres of lakes.
Recently, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a final rule set to take effect on October 1, 2001 to improve the total maximum daily loads (TMDLs) program. The overall goal of the EPA programs are to clean up as many of these waterbodies as feasibly possible.
The TMDL program is designed to be a cooperative effort between the states and the EPA. According to the EPA, a total maximum daily loads (TMDL ) program is essentially a "pollution budget" designed to restore the health of a polluted body of water. The goal of the EPA through this Rule is to make thousands more rivers, lakes, and coastal waters safe for swimming, fishing, and healthy populations of fish.
Highlights of the changes and improvements in the new TMDL regulations are as follows:
TMDL Implementation Plans
A TMDL must include an implementation plan that defines specific steps to be taken to restore polluted waters on a specific schedule. The current regulations do not require implementation plans.
Implementation plans must provide a reasonable assurance that measures to reduce pollution from nonpoint sources will be implemented. The current regulations do not fully address nonpoint sources.
Implementation plans must identify a date by which the State expects that water quality standards will be attained. The current regulations do not address schedules for attainment of water quality standards.
Schedules
States must develop TMDLs as soon as possible, at an even pace, but no later than 10 years after the first listing of a polluted waterbody, unless the EPA grants an extension. Currently, states set priorities and identify those TMDLs that they expect to develop over the next two years.
A schedule provides for implementing controls within 5 years when practicable for pollution control measures for both point and nonpoint sources. The current rules do not address schedules for implementing nonpoint source controls.
The EPA must develop TMDLs where a TMDL submitted to the EPA is disapproved. The EPA must develop a TMDL where a state fails to make substantial progress under an approved schedule. The EPA must complete TMDLs within 2 years. Currently, the EPA must develop TMDLs only where a TMDL submitted to EPA is disapproved.
Key Plans
A comprehensive listing of a state's polluted waters is required. This includes waters needing TMDLs, waters impaired by pollution, polluted waters with completed TMDLs that do not yet meet water quality standards, and polluted waters where existing controls will meet water quality standards before the next list is submitted. The current state listings only include waters impaired by pollutants and those still needing a TMDL.
States must give a high priority to development of TMDLs for waterbodies where the problem pollutant is causing a drinking water system violation or where the waterbody supports threatened or endangered species. The current regulations do not address these problems.
The new regulations give the EPA a new mechanism to object to and to reissue expired state NPDES permits for waters not meeting water quality standards. They also require permits for certain animal feeding/aquatic culture operations in states authorized to issue Clean Water Act permits pursuant to a TMDL established by EPA. The current rules provide no procedural mechanism on this issue.
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