Source Water Protection and TMDL Watersheds

Some of the watersheds in the Metro Water District require additional protection or management activities. These include watersheds that serve as public drinking water sources, and those that do not meet their designated use due to water quality issues.

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)
Coordination between local jurisdictions and water providers on issues related to source water protection
Develop and implement interjurisdictional agreements for source water protection as necessary

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 with TMDL watersheds will undertake a number of steps in developing their implementation plans to meet water quality standards:

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