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The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, working with the Department of Environmental Protection, has established final Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDL) plans to improve the water quality of Lake Wallenpaupack in Pike and Wayne counties and Christiana River Watershed in Chester County, PA, Delaware and Maryland.
Lake Wallenpaupack is a 5,531-acre man-made lake with approximately 219 square miles of drainage area. Its 52 miles of shoreline cross the boundaries of three townships (Paupack, Palmyra, and Salaem).
The Christina River Basin covers about 564 square miles in portions of Chester County, Pa., New Castle County, Del. and Cecil County, Md. and drains to the Delaware River at Wilmington. The water bodies impacted by these TMDLs include portions the Red Clay and White Clay Creeks and Christina and Brandywine Rivers in Pennsylvania and Delaware.
When a water body does not meet its water quality standards for a particular pollutant, the federal Clean Water Act requires the state to include the water body on its list of impaired waters.
Once the water body is impaired, a TMDL must be developed to set the maximum amount of a specific pollutants that an estuary, lake or river can receive. After that load amount is calculated, specified sources of that pollutant in the watershed are required to reduce their contributions of the contaminant to specified levels.
The final TMDLs can be reviewed on the EPA Region 3 TMDL webpage.
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