Arroyo Colorado: A TMDL Project for Legacy Pollutants and Organics

Related Links:

TMDLs: Improving Water Quality

Arroyo Colorado: TMDL Project for Dissolved Oxygen

Map and Segment Descriptions: Nueces&endash;Rio Grande Coastal Basin (PDF)

Counties: Cameron and Hidalgo
Parameters: Legacy pollutants and organics in fish tissue
River Basin: Nueces-Rio Grande Coastal
Segments: 2202, 2202A

Arroyo Colorado

• Project Overview
  (PDF. Help with PDF.)
• Background
  and Goals
• TMDLs and
  Implementation Plan
• For More Information

Background and Goals

The Arroyo Colorado, an ancient distributary channel of the Rio Grande, extends 90 miles from Mission, Texas to the Laguna Madre in the Rio Grande Valley. Water quality and fish tissue analyses show that legacy pollutants occur in fish tissues in such concentrations to warrant a fish consumption advisory upstream of the Port of Harlingen. Legacy pollutants are chemicals whose use has been banned or severely restricted, but which still remain in the environment.

TMDLs and Implementation Plan

The following documents are available in PDF. (Help with PDF.)

Collecting Water Quality and Flow Data

• Twelve TMDLs for Legacy Pollutants in the Arroyo Colorado and Donna Reservoir and Canal
  The EPA approved these TMDLs on May 13, 2004.
• Four Total Maximum Daily Loads for Legacy Pollutants in the Arroyo Colorado Above Tidal and the Donna Reservoir and Canal System
  The EPA approved these TMDLs on June 14, 2001.
• Implementation Plan for Arroyo Colorado and Donna Reservoir and Canal Legacy Pollutant TMDLs
  The Commission approved this Implementation plan on September 14, 2001.
• Response to public comment on the Arroyo Colorado TMDLs
• Response to public comment on the Arroyo Colorado Implementation Plan

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