EPA conducted two literature reviews to help inform development of new or revised recreational water quality criteria by 2012. The first document, Review of Published Studies to Characterize Relative Risks from Different Sources of Fecal Contamination in Recreational Waters, describes the existing information available to characterize the relative risks of human illness from various sources of fecal contamination in recreational waters. The second document, Review of Zoonotic Pathogens in Ambient Water, provides a summary of information on waterborne zoonotic pathogens that come primarily from warm-blooded animals. Both documents are available on the EPA's web site.
Impaired Waters and TMDL Program Results Analysis
The development of Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs) has increased markedly in recent years and over 37,000 TMDLs have now been completed. The TMDL Program Results Analysis Project is a multi-year EPA effort directed at measuring and analyzing programmatic and environmental results from the TMDL Program.