Source Water Protection and TMDL Watersheds

Some of the watersheds in the District require a higher level of protection or management. These include watersheds that serve as public drinking water sources, and those that do not meet their designated use and require pollution limits.

Source Water Protection Watersheds

Communities with water supply source watersheds within their jurisdictions will need to implement additional measures to help protect public drinking water supplies. Some of these activities include:

• Implementation of Georgia EPD’s Part V Environmental Planning Criteria which requires local governments to adopt and enforce buffers and setbacks on streams in small and large water supply watersheds, as well as limit impervious surface area within the watershed(s).
• Develop geographic information system (GIS) maps to assist community planning with source water protection.
• Provide pollution prevention educational materials to operators of potential polluting businesses and industries within water supply watersheds.
• Work towards acquiring greenspace land in water supply watersheds.

Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) Watersheds

For water bodies that do not meet water quality standards, the Georgia EPD is required under the U.S. Clean Water Act to develop a pollution budget, also known as a Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL). Communities within a TMDL watershed are then to develop an implementation plan to meet the TMDL budget. There can be multiple TMDLs for the same waterbody and watershed.

Local governments in TMDL watershed will undertake a number of steps in developing their implementation plans to meet water quality standards:

• Identify TMDL watersheds requiring interjurisdictional cooperation and develop agreements
• Confirm the parameter violation in all TMDL-listed waterbodies
• Identify potential sources of pollutant
• Develop TMDL implementation plans for all listed waterbodies
• Implement all TMDL plansMonitor TMDL implementation plan effectiveness through water quality monitoring
• Examine data and reevaluate TMDL implementation plan programs and strategies