&EPA
United States Environmental Protection Agency
Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) Based Water Quality
Standards and the Clean Water State Revolving Fund
The focus of water quality management is now shifting
to the use of the TMDLs to identify water quality
management needs. The Clean Water State Revolving
Fund (CW SRF) is an ideal funding source to provide
financing for the many water quality management
projects that will result from the TMDL process. This
fact sheet provides an overview of TMDLs and the use
of CW SRFs to fund project needs.
What is a TMDL?
A TMDL (total maximum daily loading) is a calculation
of the total maximum amount of a pollutant that a body
of water can receive each day and still meet water
quality standards, (i.e., a pollution budget).
Water quality standards are set by states, territories, and
tribes. They identify the uses for each waterbody such
as drinking water supply, contact recreation (swimming),
and aquatic life support (fishing), and the scientific
criteria to support that use.
A TMDL is the sum of the allowable loads of a single
pollutant from all contributing point and nonpoint sources
in a given watershed. 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 projected population
growth and development around the waterbody, and
seasonal variation in water quality.
When a TMDL is ready for implementation,
stakeholders decide which pollution sources must be
restricted to meet water quality standards. The end
result is the identification of a number of water quality
management projects or activities that must be
undertaken to meet the TMDL.
The TMDL List
The Clean Water Act (CWA), Section 303(d), requires
that every other year states, territories, and tribes submit
to EPA a prioritized list of all waterbodies in their area
not meeting water quality standards and for which
TMDLs must be developed. EPA will approve the list,
or modify and add waterbodies to the list if it deems it
incomplete.
Such waterbodies are included when the following
pollution control requirements are not effective in
meeting water quality standards for the TMDL such as:
• technology-basedeffluentlimitations required by
the CWA
• more stringent effluent limitations required by
the state, territory, or tribe
• other pollution control requirements, such as
best management practices
After a TMDL list is drafted by the governing agency,
it goes through a public comment process before
submission to EPA.
The Clean Water State Revolving Fund
One financial resource that can be used to fund projects
or activities that will implement a TMDL is the Clean
Water State Revolving Fund (CWSRF). Each of the 50
states and Puerto Rico operate a CWSRF to make low
interest rate loans for water quality improvement
projects. Nationally, the CWSRF has in excess of $34
billion in assets and has issued more than 9,000 loans
since 1988. Many of the loans are used for traditional
wastewater systems, but others go to diverse nonpoint
source and estuary projects. The CWSRF funds over
$3 billion worth of water quality projects annually.
Who May Qualify
Many different parties are eligible to receive CWSRF
loans. Recipients have included municipalities, utilities,
community groups, private individuals, companies,
conservation districts, and nonprofit organizations. Since
the CWSRF is managed by the states, project funding
varies according to the priorities, policies, and laws
within each state. Eligibility also varies by state.
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Using the Clean Water State Revolving Fund to
Finance TMDL Implementation
Many of the projects or activities identified to meet a
TMDL will be eligible to receive CWSRF funds,
including:
• planning, design, and construction of municipal
wastewater treatment systems
• repair and replacement of septic systems
• agricultural best management practices
• animal waste control systems
• erosion and sediment control systems
• waterways sediment removal
• landfill closures and leachate management
• land acquisition to protect water resources
• remediation of leaking underground storage
tanks
Each of these types of projects and others are currently
being financed by CWSRFs around the country. As the
TMDL process progresses, there will be no major
difference in the types of projects funded, but there will
be a difference in how priorities are set to identify
projects in need of funding.
Funding High Priority Projects
Each year CWSRF managers develop an Intended Use
Plan (IUP) that describes the projects the program
plans to fund that year. Since the CWSRF cannot fund
every water quality project, states prioritize to determine
which projects to fund. States use different methods to
identify and evaluate the projects to be included in the
IUP, and as part of incorporating the TMDL process
into their planning, increasingly realize the role
comprehensive watershed management plays in
identifying priority projects with important water quality
benefits for funding by the CWSRF.
As the breadth of projects being considered for inclusion
in lUPs increases, the complexity of evaluating priorities
also increases. TMDL's will play an increasingly
important role in informing states' priority setting
processes in the future.
Challenges Ahead
EPA encourages states to use their CWSRF resources
to finance the widest variety of high priority water
quality projects. Those interested in obtaining funding
for projects or activities that will implement a TMDL
should seek out their CWSRF programs, gain an
understanding of how their state program works, and
participate in the annual process that determines which
projects are funded.
Examples of Projects
Minnesota farmers find agricultural loan program
helps them achieve environmental goals. Via a loan
from the state CWSRF program, Minnesota Department
of Agriculture has set up a low interest loan program to
help farmers correct runoff problems. The program
knits together state, local government units (county soil
and water conservation districts), and private lenders to
get the money to qualified applicants. A real "win-win"
situation - farmers get the help they need and the state
gets what it wants, in the form of reduced nonpoint
source pollution.
For more information on the CWSRF program,
please contact:
Clean Water State Revolving Fund Branch
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
1201 Constitution Avenue, NW
EPA East Bldg, MC 4204M
Washington, D.C. 20004
Phone: (202) 564-0752 Fax: (202) 501-2403
Internet:http://www. epa.gov/OWM/fman.htm
For more information on TMDLs please
contact:
Total Maximum Daily Load Program
Office of Water, Oceans and Watersheds
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Ariel Rios Bldg, MC 4503 F
Washington, D.C. 20460
Phone: (202) 260-7074 Fax: (202) 260-7024
Internet: http://www.epa.gov/owow/tmdl/
Office of Water
March 2001
EPA832-F-01-001
Clean Water
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