“The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the District of Columbia, and the state of Maryland today announced a new Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) or “pollution diet” for trash in the Anacostia River, making the Anacostia the first interstate river in the nation with such a Clean Water Act trash limit.”

It will be interesting to see how this trash TMDL will be implemented and what effect, if any, it will have on NPDES Construction General Permit (CGP) holders. Solid waste and trash are common pollutants on construction sites that must be controlled under the existing CGP structure. The CGP also places responsibility on applicants to document in the SWPPP the steps taken to investigate potential TMDLs that could apply to the project being built. Once aware of the limits, CGP applicants must take any applicable TMDLs into account in the development of the SWPPP.

Read the attached EPA notice and stay tuned as we discover what it actually means to the construction industry.