EPA is disapproving New Jersey's failure to list the five omitted waters on its 1998 CWA Section 303(d) list, and is adding these five waters (shown in Table 1) to New Jersey's 1998 Section 303(d) list. The pollutants potentially causing impairments of the listed waters are identified in Table 1. The proposed notice included zinc as a pollutant of concern for the Birch Swamp Brook. As a result of additional information received from New Jersey during the comment period, zinc was removed from the list of pollutants of concern.
CWA Section 303(d)(1) and EPA's regulations at 40 CFR 130.7(b)(4) require States to prioritize waters on their Section 303(d) lists for TMDL development. EPA has assigned a ranking of low priority to the five omitted waters. A low priority is appropriate because of the control actions that are currently underway for the five omitted waters, all of which have been listed due to potential contamination from adjacent hazardous waste sites. EPA expects that these waters should be restored upon implementation of the remediation plans for the sites impacting the waters. EPA believes that any TMDL that is developed for these waters will rely on the remediation plans, required under 40 CFR 300.430 for the hazardous waste sites. EPA expects that New Jersey will track the progress of remediation plans for the relevant hazardous sites and the water quality of the above five waters.
Source: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
