Nutrient criteria: considerations for Corps of Engineers Reservoirs

BACKGROUND: Renewed concern over the adverse impacts of nutrients on the quality of surface waters prompted drafting of the Vice President’s Clean Water Action Plan (Browner and Glickman 1998) and led to the design of the EPA’s national strategy for the development of regional nutrient criteria for major classes of water bodies, including rivers and streams, lakes and reservoirs, wetlands, and estuaries and coastal waters (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency 1998). Development of such a strategy is founded on the well-established relationship between plant nutrients, particularly phosphorus and nitrogen, and water resource impairment (e.g., National Academy of Sciences (1969)). Implicit in the strategy is the importance of the linkage between nutrient sources in the watershed and resultant concentrations in receiving waters. The strategy is clearly intended to limit or reduce water quality problems related to nutrient overenrichment from the watershed. Once developed, nutrient criteria can be used for management planning and to establish standards and set limits for National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permits and for Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) targets (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency 1991).

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