KDHE Home - News 1999 - News Release
Kansas
Department of Health & Environment
Bill Graves, Governor
Clyde D. Graeber, Secretary
For Immediate Release
Contact: Don Brown, 785-296-1529
Kansas Takes the Plunge Into Innovative Water Quality Process
The Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) has completed the first step in a process designed to improve Kansas water quality. The Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDL) process establishes quantitative objectives and strategies needed to reach water quality goals in the surface waters of the state. TMDLs allow for the identification of pollutants causing water quality impairments and can set maximum allowable levels of those pollutants in streams, rivers and lakes.
On Wednesday, June 30, 1999, KDHE submitted to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) the TMDL packet for the Kansas-Lower Republican River Basin in north central and northeast Kansas. During the next 12 months, KDHE will conduct TMDL efforts in the Upper and Lower Arkansas and Cimarron River Basins in southwest and south central Kansas. In the near future, every water basin in the state will be examined through the TMDL process.
"This is another example of Kansas taking a pragmatic, common sense approach on water quality issues," said Clyde D. Graeber, Secretary of Health and Environment. "Kansas has an extensive surface water monitoring system and a solid base of water quality information which has been used to prepare these detailed TMDLs. With this effort, Kansas joins a handful of states who have successfully examined water quality conditions and prepared comprehensive TMDLs. The innovative process used by KDHE may provide a model for other states to utilize in their process."
TMDLs provide the mechanism for identifying and correcting water quality impairments. Both point-source pollution (including municipal and industrial discharges into waterways) and non-point-source pollution (like urban and agricultural run-off) may be addressed by the process. Each step in the process includes public comment and participation.
"The participation of the public with other interested parties is crucial to the success of the TMDL process for Kansas. We invite all Kansans to work in the collaborative process of establishing and implementing TMDLs." said Secretary Graeber.
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