(Washington, DC) – The District of Columbia affirms its support of EPA’s multijurisdictional Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) strategy to clean up the Chesapeake Bay and the region’s streams, creeks, and rivers, the District Department of the Environment (DDOE) reported today.
The TMDL, also known as a “pollution diet,” is a first for the nation and the region and was issued for nutrients and sediment for all impaired stream and river segments in the tidal portion of the Chesapeake Bay watershed. The Clean Water Act requires that states and the District of Columbia establish TMDLs for water bodies with impaired uses. The District’s water bodies—the Anacostia and Potomac Rivers and the Rock Creek—are considered impaired because they do not meet the designated uses for being ‘fishable’ and ‘swimmable.’ The Anacostia River is also impaired for sediment and nutrients.
The EPA-issued Chesapeake Bay-wide TMDL is a combination of Watershed Implementation Plans (WIPs) submitted by Delaware, Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia, which identify ways to reduce of nitrogen, phosphorus, and sediment from each jurisdiction. The TMDL called for a 25 percent reduction in nitrogen, 24 percent reduction in phosphorus, and 20 percent reduction in sediment. It is designed to ensure that the pollution control measures to fully restore the Bay and its tidal rivers are in place by 2025, with at least 60 percent of the actions completed by 2017.
The District’s Watershed Implementation Plan (WIP), submitted to EPA, focuses on building green infrastructure as a means of controlling urban polluted runoff, a major problem in densely developed areas as DC. The District will rely on DC Water (formerly DC WASA) to implement its Long Term Control Plan to reduce the majority of nitrogen and phosphorous from reaching the Bay. The Watershed Plan also recommends ways to distribute pollution loadings to different source sectors within the jurisdiction and identifies ways in which the District can achieve and maintain an improved level of water quality in its rivers.
“This is a progressive move toward helping us restore our rivers and streams,” says Christophe A.G. Tulou, director of the DDOE. “Our Watershed Implementation Plan is the District’s strategy for meeting the terms of its TMDL and we look forward to working with EPA and all the Chesapeake Bay states to accelerate the restoration of the Bay and our precious rivers.”
The District’s WIP encompasses a collaborative effort across District agencies to help clean up the waters of the District – and ultimately the Bay. It includes the RiverSmart Homes and Schools programs, a vigorous tree canopy/planting goal, and many other structural and non-structural measures to protect the water quality of our Potomac and Anacostia Rivers and Rock Creek.
The TMDL is required under federal law and responds to consent decrees in Virginia and D.C. dating back to the late 1990s. For more information on the TMDL and state plan evaluations, visit www.epa.gov/chesapeakebaytmdl.