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Meetings/Training/Listservers
Training
August 9-12, 2009
Hilton Minneapolis, Minneapolis, Minnesota
TMDL 2009 provides an opportunity for environmental professionals to convene and share new and evolving science tools and information available to assist state, tribal, and local organizations in creating effective TMDLs. The meeting will include presentations, panel discussions, and workshops on topics including pollutant-specific TMDLs (e.g., nutrients, bacteria, sediment), water quality standards, modeling, stormwater and nonpoint source pollution, stakeholder involvement and public participation, and regulatory, policy, and implementation issues.
Watersheds 103: TMDL Training for Practitioners
EPA's Watershed Academy has developed a one-day TMDL training course called Watersheds 103: TMDL Training for Practitioners. This one-day course reviews the programmatic and technical components for developing TMDLs under section 303(d) of the Clean Water Act. The training course is intended for those who will actually be developing TMDLs, including technical water resources staff and watershed managers from states, tribes and territories; local governments; EPA regional and headquarters staff; and other interested watershed practitioners. The training course provides critical information on how the technical basis for a TMDL can be developed. The TMDL information is presented through lectures and relevant case study examples tailored to regional needs.
We hope to schedule future offerings of Watersheds 103 -- please check this page periodically for offerings.
Check the Watershed Academy course schedule for future offerings of the TMDL training course as well as other watershed-related training courses.
BASINS and Other Training Sponsored by OST
EPA's Office of Science and Technology sponsors a week-long course on using Better Assessment Science Integrating point and Nonpoint Sources (BASINS) which is a software tool to perform integrated water quality and watershed analyses. The course covers an introduction to the basic geographic information (GIS) operations, BASINS environmental data layers, nonpoint source modeling, and in-stream water quality assessments. The course includes extensive hands-on computer applications.
Persons interested in watershed management, development of total maximum daily loads (TMDLs), coastal zone management, nonpoint source programs, water quality modeling, National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NDPES) permitting, and other related programs are urged to attend. Participants should have a background in water quality modeling, a basic understanding of GIS applications, and familiarity with the Windows environment. Familiarity with ArcView (ver. 3) basic operations is a plus.
OST is also sponsoring several other training courses on the use of various models including: HSPF, CORMIX, etc. See the BASINS website for more details.
Archived Versions of TMDL Webcasts
ATTAINS: A Gateway to State-Reported Water Quality Information, June 18, 2008
EPA recently released a new Web site where water quality managers and the public can go to view a wide range of state-reported water quality information. This Web site, sometimes referred to as ATTAINS, combines two formerly separate databases: the National Assessment Database and the National Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) Tracking System. The National Assessment Database is for water quality assessment information reported by the states under section 305(b) of the Clean Water Act, while the National TMDL Tracking System is for impaired waters information reported by the states under section 303(d) of the Clean Water Act. ATTAINS gives the “full story” showing which waters have been assessed, which are impaired, and which are being (or have been) restored. This Web site allows the user to view dynamic, continuously updated tables and charts that summarize state-reported information for the nation as a whole, for individual states and waters, and for the ten EPA Regions. Visit ATTAINS at epa.gov/waters/ir.
Options for Expressing Daily Loads in TMDLs, Jan. 8, 2008
This Webcast introduces EPA’s recently released draft document, Options for Expressing Daily Loads in TMDLs. The Webcast is designed to provide information to TMDL practitioners regarding options for developing appropriate daily load expressions during the TMDL process. In particular, the Webcast addresses the calculation of daily loads for TMDLs that use allocation time frames that are greater than daily (e.g., annual, seasonal).
The ABCs of TMDLs for Stakeholders, Sept. 18, 2005
Over the last decade, the TMDL Program has gone from a somewhat ignored water quality planning program to a program found in just about every water quality manager’s toolbox. A simple Google search for "total maximum daily loads" now exceeds two million hits in less than a second. What is this program and why all the attention? Who develops TMDLs, why do they develop them and how do they fit into the watershed process? What is a "303(d)" list and "integrated report" and why should we pay attention to these? This Webcast provides an introduction to the 303(d)-listing and TMDL Programs. Case examples illustrate the various principles of the TMDL Program and how this program is being used to guide water quality control decisions in both the point source and nonpoint source arenas. The Webcast also describes how you can be involved in the 303(d) listing and TMDL development efforts in your watershed.