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PA FEDERAL ADVISORY COMMITTEE RECOMMENDS CHANGES IN TMDL PROGRAM
Release Date: 07/31/98
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FOR RELEASE: FRIDAY, JULY 31, 1998
FEDERAL ADVISORY COMMITTEE RECOMMENDS
CHANGES IN TMDL PROGRAM
On July 28, a Federal Advisory Committee on the Clean Water Act’s Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) program, sent a report to EPA’s Administrator with 170 recommendations for improving the program. The recommendations, generally representing broad agreement across the 20-member committee, suggest new policy directions in some areas, while endorsing approaches consistent with current practice in other areas. EPA is in the process of developing proposed revisions to existing TMDL regulations and guidance, and as part of this process, will carefully review and consider the committee’s consensus recommendations. The TMDL program focuses on identifying and restoring the nation’s polluted waterbodies, ensuring that they attain and maintain water quality standards. Under the program, states must l) identify and list waterbodies where state water quality standards are not being met and 2) then establish TMDLs for these waters. A TMDL is a quantitative assessment of water quality problems and contributing pollutants. It specifies the amount a pollutant needs to be reduced to meet water quality standards, allocates pollutant load reductions among pollutant sources in a watershed, and provides the basis for taking actions needed to restore a waterbody, through point source and non-point source controls. The committee, convened by EPA in l996, represents diverse geographic, policy and professional perspectives, including state and local governments, Tribes, environmental groups, industry, agriculture, forestry, academia and three federal agencies. A copy of a fact sheet and the full report is available on the Internet at: https://www.epa.gov/owow/tmdl/advisory.html, or by calling EPA’s Watershed Branch at 202-260-7074.
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