Notice of Proposed Rulemaking; Proposed Amendment of the Water Quality Regulations, Water Code and Comprehensive Plan To Establish Pollutant Minimization Plan Requirements for Point and Non-Point Source Discharges of Toxic Pollutants

Résumé

The Delaware River Basin Commission ("Commission" or "DRBC") will hold a public hearing to receive comments on a proposed amendment to the Commission's Water Quality Regulations, Water Code and Comprehensive Plan to establish pollutant minimization plan requirements for point and non-point source discharges of toxic pollutants following issuance of a total maximum daily load (TMDL) under section 303(d) of the Clean Water Act (CWA) by either a member state or the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), or issuance of an assimilative capacity determination by the Commission. A TMDL establishes the maximum loading of a pollutant that a water body can receive without causing an impairment of the water quality standard, which includes designated uses, water quality criteria calculated to protect those uses, and antidegradation requirements. When water quality standards are not attained, despite the technology- based control of industrial and municipal wastewater (point sources), the CWA requires that the impaired waters be identified on the state's Section 303(d) list and that a TMDL be developed for the pollutant or pollutants causing the impairment. A determination of the assimila