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Total Maximum Daily Load
Program
§ 303(d) Lists ~ TMDL Documents ~ Region 6 TMDL Contacts ~ Definitions
The Clean Water Act requires states to adopt water quality standards to protect the nation's waters. These standards identify the designated uses for each waterbody, for example, drinking water supply, contact recreation (swimming), and aquatic life support, along with the scientific criteria to support that use. Many of our water resources cannot currently meet their designated uses because of pollution problems from a combination of point sources, such as sewage treatment plant discharges, industrial dischargers, and nonpoint sources, such as pollutants carried by rainfall runoff from forests, agriculture lands, abandoned mine lands, etc. A Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) is a calculation of the maximum amount of a pollutant that a waterbody can receive and still meet water quality standards, and an allocation of that amount to the pollutant's sources.
A TMDL is the sum of the allowable loads of a single pollutant from all contributing point and nonpoint sources. The calculation must include a margin of safety to ensure that the waterbody can be used for the purposes the State has designated. The calculation must also account for seasonal variation in water quality.
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CWA § 303(d) Lists and Associated Documents:
- Arkansas
- Federal Register Notice, October 2, 2008 (PDF) (17KB,2pp)
- Federal Register Notice, September 15, 2008 (PDF) (16KB, 2pp)
- Federal Register Notice, June 26, 2008 (PDF)
(12KB, 2pp)
- 2008 §303(d) List Approval/Disapproval Letter (PDF) (276 KB, 3pp)
- EPA’s Record of Decision on the 2008 §303(d) List (PDF) (299 KB, 29pp)
- Seventy-Three Water Body Pollutant Pairs Proposed for Listing (PDF) (119KB, 13pp)
-
Federal Register Notice, June 17, 2008 (PDF)
(17KB, 2pp)
- 2006§303(d) List Approval/Disapproval Letter (PDF) (264 KB, 3pp)
- EPA’s Record of Decision on the 2006 §303(d) List (PDF) (433 KB, 29pp)
- Seventy-Nine Water Body Pollutant Pairs Proposed for Listing (PDF) (14KB, 2 pp)
- Federal Register Notice, August 8, 2007 (PDF) (17KB, 2pp)
- Federal Register Notice, October 31, 2006 (PDF) (24KB, 2pp)
- Arkansas 2004 § 303(d) List (PDF) (30KB, 8pp)
- Louisiana
- EPA's Record of Decision on the Louisiana 2006 § 303(d) List (PDF) (91 KB, 22pp)
- Responsiveness Summary Concerning EPA's November 5, 2007, Public Notice of Final Decisions to Add Waters and Pollutants to Louisiana's 2006 § 303(d) List (PDF) (113KB, 26pp)
- Louisiana 2006 §303(d) List (PDF) (228KB, 49pp)
- EPA's Record of Decision on the Louisiana 2004 § 303(d) List (PDF) (116KB, 11pp)
- Texas
- Federal Register Notice, July 17, 2008 (PDF) (46KB, 1 page)
- EPA’s Record of Decision on the 2008 §303(d) List (PDF) (88 KB, 12pp)
- Water Body Segment/Assessment Unit Proposed for Listing (PDF) (15KB, 1 page)
Additional links related to the TMDL Program:
- The Clean Water Act, Section 303, establishes the Water Quality Standards and TMDL programs.
- National TMDL Program
- Policy, Program and Guidance Documents
- 2006 Integrated Report Guidance