ABSTRACT
This article explains what a ‘‘total maximum daily load’’ (TMDL) is and how TMDLs help to implement the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, more commonly known as the Clean Water Act. In 1972, Congress significantly amended this Act in order to better ‘‘restore and maintain the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the Nation’s waters.’’[1] To achieve this goal, Congress relied upon three main mechanisms: two federal permit programs that regulate the discharges of pollutants from point sources; state non-point source control programs that manage more diffuse sources of water pollution, such as agricultural runoff; and state-set water quality standards, which define the more particularized water quality goals for individual water bodies, based on the existing and/or desired uses of the particular water body.
