Surface Water Quality Bureau
Monitoring, Assessment & Standards
Total Maximum Daily Loads
US EPA-Approved TMDL for the Dry Cimarron River Watershed

PDF DOWNLOADS US EPA-Approved TMDL 2.5 MB US EPA Approval Letter 126 kb

The Dry Cimarron River (DCR) together with its tributaries and headwaters, define the Dry Cimarron River Watershed. The SWQB held pre-survey public meetings in Kenton, OK and Folsom, NM and conducted a surface water quality survey of the Dry Cimarron River watershed in 2006. Sampling stations were established along the streams in the watershed to evaluate the impact of tributary streams and to work toward establishing background conditions. As a result of assessing data generated during this monitoring effort, SWQB staff documented impairments of the New Mexico water quality standards for total dissolved solids (TDS) and sulfate on Dry Cimarron River (perennial reaches OK boundary to Long Canyon), E. coli and TDS on Dry Cimarron River (Long Canyon to Oak Creek), E. coli and selenium on Long Canyon (perennial reaches above Dry Cimarron), and E. coli and nutrients on Oak Creek (Dry Cimarron to headwaters). This document addresses the above-noted impairments. The data used to develop these TMDLs were collected during the 2006 survey and follow-up collections in 2007 and 2008.

The DCR TMDLs package was first opened for Public Comment on February 2nd, 2009.  After incorporating public input, the Final Draft TMDLs document was presented to the New Mexico Water Quality Control Commission (WQCC) at their regular April 14, 2009 public meeting.  After a few revisions, the WQCC-Approved DCR TMDLs were forwarded to the Region 6 Offices of the US Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) for final approval, which was granted with no substantive changes on June 2, 2009.