Planning Process
Beneficial use determinations must have sufficient credible water quality data for TMDL planning.
Throughout the U.S., data are often lacking adequate spatial or temporal coverage to reliably establish the sources and magnitude of water quality degradation.
TMDL planning in large watersheds is a process that typically involves the following steps:
- Watershed Characterization—understanding the basic physical, environmental, and human elements of the watershed.
- Impairment Status—analyzing existing data to determine if waters fully support beneficial uses
- Data Gaps and Monitoring Report—identification of any additional data needs and monitoring recommendations
- Source Assessment—identification of sources of pollutants, and magnitude of sources.
- Load Allocation—determination of natural pollutant load, and load from human activities (i.e. diffuse nonpoint sources and point discharges).
- Set Targets—establishment of water quality targets intended to restore or maintain beneficial uses.
- TMDL Implementation Plan—a watershed management strategy to attain established targets.
Read more about this topic: Total Maximum Daily Load
Famous quotes containing the words planning and/or process:
“Sensuality takes planning and work.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)
“A designer who is not also a couturier, who hasn’t learned the most refined mysteries of physically creating his models, is like a sculptor who gives his drawings to another man, an artisan, to accomplish. For him the truncated process of creating will always be an interrupted act of love, and his style will bear the shame of it, the impoverishment.”
—Yves Saint Laurent (b. 1936)