The EPA has established April 30, 2003, as the effective date of the revisions to the agency's Total Maximum Daily Load and National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System Program regulations published in theFederal Registeron July 13, 2000.

EPA Administrator Christine Whitman has established April 30, 2003, as the effective date of the revisions to the agency's Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) and National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System Program (NPDES) regulations published in theFederal Registeron July 13, 2000.

The July 2000 rule amends and clarifies existing regulations implementing a portion of the Clean Water Act, which asks states to identify waters that are not meeting water quality standards and to establish their pollutant budgets, called TMDLs, in order to restore the quality of those waters.

The rule also lays out specific time frames under which the EPA will assure that lists of waters not meeting water quality standards and TMDLs are completed as scheduled, and that necessary point and nonpoint source controls are implemented to meet TMDLs.

In addition, Whitman's actions amends the regulations currently in effect to revise the date on which states are required to submit the next list of impaired waters from April 1, 2002, to Oct. 1, 2002.