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Implementation Guidelines, Tools and Reports

TMDL implementation involves actions to be taken across agricultural, forest, urban, and rural residential land uses to reduce pollutants and improve water quality. This web site is intended to provide information to help Designated Management Agencies implement TMDLs for nonpoint source pollution. Most links provide information applicable to any nonpoint source TMDL.

Getting Started: Guidance for Plan Development and Implementation

One of the first steps for improving water quality after a TMDL is completed is to develop a TMDL Implementation Plan. DEQ has named certain federal, state, and local governments and agencies, including cities, counties, and special districts as DMAs because these agencies and governments have authority to manage and regulate sources of pollutants that are listed in the TMDL. The following are various documents that can assist in the development of an Implementation Plan. Several documents are working drafts that will be updated over time based on feedback from DMAs.


  • TMDL Implementation Plan Guidance for Including Post-Construction Elements in TMDL Implementation Plans
    This document provides guidance to urban and rural residential Designated Management Agencies and DEQ staff for including post-construction stormwater management strategies in TMDL implementation plans (IP). Although DEQ encourages all urban and rural residential DMAs to use this guidance, it is particularly recommended for urban and rural residential DMAs within the Coastal Nonpoint Management Area.

  • TMDL Implementation Tracking Matrix
    (Appendix D of Implementation Plan Guidance above)
    This is a template for DMAs to describe and report management activities in their annual reports to DEQ.

  • Management Strategy Checklist
    This document identifies some key management strategies that all plans should consider for various water quality parameters.

  • Existing Plan Checklist
    Many Designated Management Agencies are likely to have management strategies developed and described in other documents. This check list will help you reference what has been developed and evaluate the adequacy of existing programs. If gaps are identified, this check list will help DMAs address the deficiencies.

  • Oregon Administrative Rules Chapter 340 Division 042 - Total Maximum Daily Loads
    Rules that guide TMDL implementation including elements required for every implementation plan.​

​​Designated management agencies are expected to submit to DEQ an annual status report briefly describing the status of management strategies that implement TMDL pollutant allocations or reductions. Every fifth year the agencies submit an evaluation report in place of the annual report. DEQ published a summary in 2014 of the data DMAs provided in their five year evaluations about TMDL implementation activities between 2008 and 2013. A follow-up review of five year evaluations for implementation activities between 2013-2018 was published in 2020.

  • Other Program Planning Control Measures – New information
    This document highlights some of the strategies/BMPs reported by DMAs that were not captured in Willamette Basin Five Year Review Report: City, County, Special District Implementation 2013- 2018. Some of these strategies may be innovative or underused, and therefore important to communicate to other TMDL implementation practitioners. The DEQ hopes that this information can be helpful when DMAs update their nonpoint source TMDL implementation plan matrices.

  • Willamette Basin Five Year Review Report: City, County, Special District Implementation 2013-2018
    This report focuses on TMDL activities completed between 2013 and 2018 by city, county and special districts named as designated management agencies in the Willamette Basin 2006 TMDL. DEQ administered the first five year review in 2013 and the following five year review was administered in 2018. This report compares results between the 2013 and 2018 evaluations. ​

Example TMDL implementation plans

Please contact the appropriate Basin Coordinator for sample plans.     

Contact

If you have questions about TMDLs in a specific watershed, we encourage you to contact the appropriate Basin Coordinator:
 
Basin Coordinator List