PUBLIC NOTICE
Draft Revised Total Maximum Daily Loads for Metals in Rock Creek Watershed in the District of Columbia
The Director of the Department of Energy and Environment (the Department) is submitting for public review and comment the Draft revised Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs) for metals for the Rock Creek watershed in the District of Columbia, including:
- Upper Rock Creek and Lower Rock Creek.
The Draft revisions are presented in an appendix to the final 2004 TMDL and provide information and methodologies for calculating the daily load expressions in addition to minor updates to the hydrologic model. All other aspects of the TMDLs are the same. The original 2004 Final Total Maximum Daily Load for Metals in Rock Creek is posted at http://doee.dc.gov/publication/rock-creek-metals-tmdls.
The Draft revisions are the result of a challenge in federal District Court to the TMDLs identified above for failing to include daily load expressions. On January 15, 2009, the Anacostia Riverkeeper, Friends of the Earth, and Potomac Riverkeeper (Case No.: 1:09-cv-00098-JDB) filed a complaint that certain District TMDLs did not include a daily load expression established as required by Friends of the Earth vs. the Environmental Protection Agency, 446 F.3d 140, 144 (D.C. Cir. 2006). The District Court ultimately vacated the subject TMDLs, but delayed vacatur in order to allow the District of Columbia and EPA sufficient time to establish and approve replacement TMDLs. For purposes of these TMDLs, vacatur is stayed until January 1, 2017.
The Draft revisions provide daily loading expressions and also incorporate new water quality standards that the District has promulgated since October 2005, after the approval of the original TMDLs, which remained unchanged in the most recent water quality standards triennial review approved by EPA.
A public hearing on the above described Draft revised TMDLs may be held within the 30-day comment period (7/8/2016 to 8/8/2016), if requested by interested parties.
A person may obtain a copy of the Draft TMDL revision by any of the following means:
Download the documents attached below.
Email a request to [email protected] with “Rock Creek Metals TMDL Revisions” in the subject line.
Review a copy in person at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Library, 901 G. Street, NW, Washington, DC 20001 during normal business hours.
Write the Department at 1200 First Street NE, 5th Floor, Washington, DC 20002, “Attn: George E. Onyullo, RE: Rock Creek Metals TMDL Revisions” on the outside of the envelope.
The deadline for comments is 8/8/2016 at 5:00 P.M. Person(s) may also submit written comment(s) by email, with a subject line of “Rock Creek Metals TMDL Revisions,” to the attention of George E. Onyullo at [email protected]. Comments clearly marked “Rock Creek Metals TMDL Revisions” may also be hand delivered or mailed to the Department’s offices at the address listed above. All comments should be received no later than Monday, August 8, 2016. All comments received on these Draft revised TMDLs during the comment period will be made part of the public record, and will be considered, as appropriate in any further revisions, prior to submitting a final draft to EPA for approval.
