the etowah initiative:
spring 2002
development of a phosphorus total maximum
daily load (tmdl) for lake allatoona
Clair Partee, Erin Dreelin, Jason Slider.
Abstract
Jason Slider, School of Law
The 1972 Federal Clean Water Act (CWA) requires the creation of a Total
Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) for a body of water that is not achieving compliance
with its designated water quality standard for a listed pollutant. The
purpose of a TMDL is to create a plan that will address this problem,
and allow a body of water to reach attainment of its designated water
quality standard by limiting the amount of that pollutant that can enter
the water. The 1996 case of Sierra Club v. Hankinson, has forced
the creation of TMDLs for Georgia's impaired waters by the Georgia Environmental
Protection Division (EPD) that is to be completed by 2004.
Lake Allatoona is an impaired water that is not achieving compliance
with its designated water quality standard for phosphorus. This is mainly
a result of high levels of the pollutant being transported into the lake
through the Etowah River. By July 2003, the Georgia EPD is responsible
for establishing a Lake Allatoona phosphorus TMDL which must be accepted
by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Therefore, the purpose of
this project is to develop an acceptable and effective phosphorus TMDL
for Lake Allatoona that complies with the requirements of the CWA and
applicable federal regulations. Since the phosphorus that ends up in Lake
Allatoona comes from a variety of identified and unidentified sources,
it will be necessary that this TMDL successfully creates ways of controlling
both point sources and non-point sources of phosphorus. Furthermore, by
complying with newly enacted federal regulations, this project could possibly
lead to the development of a TMDL for phosphorus that can be used by the
Georgia EPD for other impaired waters of the state, as well as by the
EPA for other impaired waters throughout the country.
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