Mobile Water Quality Laboratory

ORSANCO, West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announce the release of a draft report for public comment on the development of an Ohio River PCB TMDL. The official comment period runs from July 29, 2002 to September 3, 2002.
See the Draft Report in .pdf: Ohio River PCB TMDL - Final Public Comment Draft

ORSANCO’s Watershed Pollutant Reduction Program was established in 1995 to investigate specific pollutants on a watershed basis. The program combines existing data with targeted monitoring activities to identify sources of these pollutants and develop control strategies. Currently, this program is assisting states and U.S. EPA (www.epa.gov/owow/tmdl) in the development of TMDLs.

TMDLs:
A total maximum daily load (TMDL) is the maximum amount of a specific pollutant that can be assimilated by a water body without causing impairment or an exceedence of water quality standards. TMDLs are required by the Federal Clean Water Act for all waters in which beneficial uses are impaired. A TMDL for dioxin was completed in 2000.

The upper two-thirds of the Ohio River, from its headwaters in Pittsburgh to Cannelton, KY (river mile 720), have been studied extensively for the extent and severity of dioxin contamination. Dioxin levels exceed water quality standards in Pittsburgh and decrease in concentration in a downstream direction, with an increase at Marietta, Ohio, and again where the Kanawha River meets the Ohio. In order to meet water quality objectives, extensive reductions in dioxin are needed in the Ohio River downstream of the Kanawha River. By 2002, ORSANCO will complete TMDLs on PCBs and chlordane.

For more information about ORSANCO's Watershed Pollutant Reduction Program, contact ORSANCO Public Information Department or Sam Dinkins

Ohio River Monitoring Page
ORSANCO has numerous ways to sample for water quality, and utilizes boats and stationary monitoring stations.