EPA is soliciting public comments on proposed Total Maximum Daily Loads for Lost River by June 15, 2007
March 16, 2007

EPA is soliciting public comments on proposed Total Maximum Daily Loads
(TMDLs) for Nitrogen and Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD) for several water bodies in the Lost River watershed in California. (Please see public notice below.) EPA is establishing these Lost River TMDLs because California will not be completing TMDLs by the schedule prescribed under a consent decree.

The deadline for submitting comments on these draft TMDLs is on or before June 15, 2007. Comments may be mailed, faxed or emailed (please send a hard copy of your comments in additional to emailing them).


Contact information for submitting comments: Gail Louis (louis.gail@epa.gov) U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 75 Hawthorne Street (WTR-3) San Francisco, CA 94105   (415) 972-3467 Fax (415)947-3537

For further information about these TMDLs, including copies of the Public Draft TMDL document and technical support documents, please see EPA's website at: http://www.epa.gov/region09/water/tmdl/progress.html

Attached is a copy of the Public Notice which ran in today's Klamath Falls Herald and News.

UNITED STATES ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
REGION IX
75 Hawthorne Street
San Francisco, CA 94105
Notice of Availability for Public Review

Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs) for Nitrogen and Biochemical Oxygen Demand to address Dissolved Oxygen and pH Impairments in the Lost River watershed in California
March 15, 2007 Release

PURPOSE OF NOTICE

The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is soliciting public comments on proposed Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs) for nitrogen and biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) for several water bodies in the Lost River watershed. Comments for the record must be submitted in writing on or before June 15, 2007 to the address below to be considered in the final decision.

COPIES AND CONTACT INFORMATION

Copies of the proposed nitrogen and BOD TMDLs and related Technical Support Documents are available for public review. Written copies will be available at the North Coast Regional Water Quality Board offices in Santa Rosa, EPA Region 9 Offices in San Francisco, or by contacting Gail Louis by phone at (415) 972-3467 or by email louis.gail@epa.gov. The documents are also available on the EPA web site (http://www.epa.gov/region09/water/tmdl/progress.html).

Comments should be submitted in writing, on or before June 15, 2007, to the following address:
Gail Louis
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
75 Hawthorne Street (WTR-3)
San Francisco, CA 94105
fax: 415-947-3537

Comments may also be emailed to louis.gail@epa.gov and followed up by a mailed hard copy. EPA will prepare a responsiveness summary that demonstrates how public comments were considered in the final TMDL decisions. The responsiveness document will be available after the TMDLs are established.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Section 303(d) of the Clean Water Act requires states to identify water bodies that do not meet water quality standards and then to establish TMDLs for each water body for each pollutant of concern. TMDLs identify the maximum amount of pollutants that can be discharged to water bodies without causing violations of water quality standards. Several reaches of and water bodies in the Lost River watershed, downstream of Anderson-Rose Dam, are included on the State of California’s Section 303(d) list of polluted waters due to water quality impacts associated with nutrient discharges, resulting in low dissolved oxygen and high pH levels. This area is sometimes referred to as the “Lower Lost River.” EPA will establish TMDLs for nitrogen and Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD) for waters in this Lost River watershed in California by December 31, 2007 because of deadlines under a consent decree (Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations, et al. v. Marcus, No. 9504474 MHP, 11 March 1997), and because the State of California will not be adopting TMDLs for the Lost River by this deadline.