Water TMDL rule put on hold
EPA
published a notice in the Federal Register on August 9, 2001 proposing to
delay the effective date of the Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) rules by 18
months. These rules were originally published in the Federal Register on
July 13, 2000. The Agency announced that it is proposing to reconsider some of
the choices made in the July 2000 rule and will suggest necessary changes in the
spring of 2002.
According to
ANLA and other Clean Water Working Group coalition partners, this is good news
because they were concerned that the rule as published would hold farms and
nurseries to specific numeric targets and permits for nonpoint source pollution.
The August 9th notice in the Federal Register also proposed to
revise the date on which States are required to submit the next list of impaired
waters. EPA is proposing to revise the date from April 1, 2002 to October 1,
2002.
For more
details, go to www.epa.gov/owow/tmdl/index.html.