Low pH Total Maximum Daily Loads for the Youghiogheny River Basin in Garrett County, Maryland. Final Report.

摘要

Section 303(d) of the Clean Water Act and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Water Quality Planning and Management Regulations (at Title 40 of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 130) require states to develop Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs) for impaired waterbodies. A TMDL establishes the amount of a pollutant that a waterbody can assimilate without exceeding its water quality standard for that pollutant. TMDLs provide the scientific basis for a state to establish water quality-based controls to reduce pollution from both point and nonpoint sources to restore and maintain the quality of the states water resources (USEPA 1991). The Youghiogheny River watershed (Maryland basin number - 05020201) is in western Maryland. The Youghiogheny River flows through portions of West Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania. The headwaters originate on Backbone Mountain in northern West Virginia (Preston County) and western Maryland (Garrett County). The river flows north through part of Maryland and through a small part of northern West Virginia before it enters Pennsylvania at the Youghiogheny River Lake. The river continues to flow north to its confluence with the Monongahela River in Pennsylvania. The Youghiogheny River watershed is dominated by forest (60 percent) and agriculture (27 percent). Urban land use accounts for less than 10 percent of the total watershed area and is mostly concentrated around rivers and other waterbodies.