Total Maximum Daily Loads of Fecal Coliform for the Restricted Shellfish Harvesting Areas in Whitehall and Meredith Creeks, Mill Creek, and the Severn River Mainstem of the Severn River Basin in Anne Arundel County, Maryland.

摘要

Section 303(d) of the federal Clean Water Act (CWA) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) implementing regulations direct each state to identify and list waters, known as water quality limited segments (WQLSs), in which current required controls of a specified substance are inadequate to achieve water quality standards. For each WQLS, the State is to either establish a Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) of the specified substance that the waterbody can receive without violating water quality standards, or demonstrate that water quality standards are being met (CFR 2006c). The Severn River (basin number 02131002) was first identified on the 1996 303(d) List submitted to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency by the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) as impaired by sediments (1996), nutrients (1996), fecal coliform in tidal portions of the basin (1996), and impacts to biological communities (2002). In 2004, the fecal coliform listing was refined by identifying three restricted shellfish harvesting areas within the basin (MDE 2006). This document, upon EPA approval, establishes TMDLs of fecal coliform that will allow for the attainment of the shellfish harvesting designated use in the three restricted shellfish harvesting areas of the Severn River basin: (1) Whitehall and Meredith Creeks, (2) Mill Creek, and (3) the Severn River mainstem. The listings for nutrients, sediments, and impacts to biological communities within the Severn River basin will be addressed at a future date.