Total Maximum Daily Loads as a Tool for Environmental Regulation and Improvements in Water Quality

Speaker:Dr. LB Nye
California Regional Water Quality Control Board
Los Angeles RegionAbstractThe calculation and implementation of Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs) are an important tool for improving water quality in California. A TMDL is a calculation of the total amount of a pollutant which can be discharged to a waterbody without the waterbody exceeding water quality standards. In the development of a TMDL, that total amount will then be allocated to the various sources of the pollutant and other regulatory tools, such as wastewater discharge permits, will conform to those allocations. While the Clean Water Act (CWA) in 1972, required the development of TMDLs, that provision of the CWA was largely ignored by the USEPA and States until the 1990s when a series of legal actions focused new attention on the use of TMDLs. The Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board (Regional Board), one of nine Regional Water Quality Boards of the State of California, has been developing and implementing TMDLs since 2001. TMDLs developed by the Regional Board have addressed metals, pesticides, chloride, pathogenic bacteria and nutrients among other contaminants. The development of TMDLs is both a technical and political process and is rarely straightforward. The Regional Board remains committed to the appropriate use of TMDLs as a tool to effect real improvement in water quality in the Los Angeles Region

Location: Kaprielian Hall (KAP) - rielian Hall, Room156

Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

Contact: Evangeline Reyes