Unleashing the Clean Water Act: The Promise and Challenge of the TMDL Approach to Water Quality

Implicit in the TMDL approach is a focus on the causes and effects of pollution throughout a watershed. More explicitly, the TMDL program will seek the identification of any and all sources of pollution. It also will focus on what we all ultimately care about the most-the cleanliness of our waterbodies. It all sounds sensible and straightforward, but in fact it is a radical, untried departure from current practice.