What's New?
Maryland Water Quality Trading Advisory Committee (WQTAC) formed to provide direction to the overall trading program and to oversee further enhancement of the trading infrastructure
Maryland submitted its revised BMP verification protocols to the Chesapeake Bay Program Office (CBPO) on January 6, 2016.
Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay “Reduce your Stormwater” website (leaving MDE) is designed specifically to help homeowners and small businesses with stormwater related issues.
Maryland TMDL Data Center that includes a TMDL Search tool, TMDL Maps, a Waste Load Allocation (WLA) Search tool, and guidance to assist stormwater permittees develop implementation plans required by MS4 permits.
Homeowner SMART Stormwater BMP Reporting Tool is Being Pilot Tested (leaving MDE website)
See What's New on Maryland's Implementing Maryland’s Action Plan - Building Local Partnerships webpage.
Overview
TMDL implementation is a multi-disciplinary field involving planning and decision-making across different geographic scales and pollution source sectors for a variety of pollutants. Although the Chesapeake Bay TMDL and accompanying Watershed Implementation Plan is currently a focus in Maryland, there are a variety of impairments and need for pollution controls. This web page allows you to access information from a variety of perspectives. We also encourage you to consult the websites of other States to gain a broader perspective.
Background
The State of Maryland is committed to working toward the implementation of TMDLs. MDE’s Water and Science Administration is responsible for TMDL development, and plays a lead role in coordinating the implementation of TMDLs. However, the roles and responsibilities for specific TMDL implementation activities are distributed among a wide variety of private and public entities. Defining and communicating these roles and responsibilities is an on-going effort.
Federal Law and Regulation
The federal Clean Water Act, and implementing regulations (40CFR130 - leaving MDE website), say little about TMDL implementation. Briefly, TMDL regulations found at 40CFR130.7(a) specify that the State's Continuing Planning Process (CPP – 40CFR130.5) should describe how approved loads will be incorporated into NPDES permits and into the State's Water Quality Management Plans (40CFR130.6).
Federal Guidance
Federal EPA guidance on TMDL implementation is also limited. Guidance is provided in a 1997 EPA Memo entitled "New Policies for Establishing and Implementing Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs)" (EPA Site, leaving MDE). On November 22, 2002, EPA provided clarification of existing TMDL regulations on the subject of implementing TMDLs through NPDES permits for stormwater.
Impairment Types and Implementation Guidance
Waterbodies are considered impaired if they do not meet water quality standards. The following are types of pollutants that cause waterbodies to be impaired. Guidance to assist stormwater permittees and other jurisdictions in their planning efforts is available on MDE's website.
Types
Other Guidance
Watershed Implementation Plans
Examples of Marylands's EPA-accepted nine-element watershed plans for various impairments can be found on MDE’s 319(h) Grant Program web page.
Chesapeake Bay TMDL Implementation and Guidance
In 2012 Maryland developed its Phase II "Watershed Implementation Plan" (WIP) for the Chesapeake Bay nutrient and sediment TMDLs. Maryland’s Phase II Plan provides a set of proposed strategies for reducing pollution from waste water, septic systems, urban stormwater, and agriculture sectors. With 2009 as a baseline, the goals are to achieve 60% of the pollutant reductions by 2017 and full reductions by 2025.
Local partners across the State play a critical role in taking actions to restore their local waterbodies, which in turn controls pollution going to the Chesapeake Bay. State partners regularly engage local partners on a variety of technical and policy issues. The webpage, "Implementing Maryland's Action Plan," supports this on-going process.
2-Year Milestone Commitments, adopted both by the State and local partners, play a key role by establishing transparent, near-term goals:
Bay TMDL Implementation Progress Status
EPA has more general information on their Chesapeake Bay TMDL (leaving MDE) webpage.
Biological Restoration Initiative
Most of the biological impairments on Maryland’s 303(d) list are due to the degradation of small, fairly shallow, free-flowing streams. MDE has initiated a Biological Restoration Initiative (BRI) to target resources to streams with the greatest recovery potential. This restoration initiative, a part of Maryland’s 319 Nonpoint Source Program, is coordinated with Maryland’s Chesapeake and Atlantic Bays Trust Fund (leaving MDE) through the Fund’s system of targeting resources [PDF] (leaving MDE).
Maryland’s Biological Restoration Initiative works in concert with the State’s anti-degradation policy implementation designed to protect high quality streams. These streams are identified using the Department of Natural Resources Maryland Biological Stream Survey (MBSS) Program (Leaving MDE) data. These high quality streams receive additional scrutiny to ensure that their biological integrity is protected.
Biological restoration of streams is also conducted via agricultural conservation programs; local government programs, including the federal NPDES Stormwater permit program administered by MDE; and various other State and federal initiatives.
Factsheets and Key Resources
Contact Information
For information on TMDL Implementation contact Dinorah Dalmasy at (410) 537-3572, MDE Water and Science Administration.
Other Useful Links