What is this acronym – or abbreviation or – nonsense ?
Ok, here is the story –
This abbreviation appears in practically all the reports
addressing the Everglades and Florida waters in general. It stands for Total
Maximum Daily Loading and what it refers to is "a value of the maximum amount of a pollutant that a water body can receive while still meeting water quality standards" (US Clean Water Act). It could be the amount of Phosphorus (or
Nitrogen) nutrient dissolved in flowing water which is bringing it (‘loading’
it) into a receiving water body. Ok, here is the story –
And from the sound and sense of it, you would say “per day”, right ?
Wow – gotcha ! Not exactly !
You see, it is really absolutely routinely expressed as the amount of the named pollutant/nutrient (say in metric tons) – but per YEAR !
It appears in the same sentence whereby, without blinking an
eye, even experts (and particularly them), for instance say : “Lake Okeechobee TMDL of 105 mt/year …”
There is an obvious discrepancy there –
so, is it supposed to be per DAY or per YEAR ???
A conspiracy theory would tell us that this confusion is injected into all the reports and countless presentations and discussions on purpose – for sure to confuse the foreign enemy’s spies !
But actually, it is probably to confuse YOU – the public - and everybody.
And it keeps being propagated and propagated (and propagated) - -
TMDL in tons per year.
TMDL – and per year -
WHY that ??? It beats me –
How could we possibly have all the “things Everglades” right if we don’t even know what we are talking about ?
Will somebody please stand up and set things straight ?
One thing is for sure - the TMDL should NOT be exceeded !
Not like the situation has been for long with Lake Okeechobee where the TMDL is set at 105 mt/y.
And what is flowing into our "liquid heart of Florida" ?
Routinely now 400-500 mt/year !
And this is how Lake Okeechobee continues to exist as the toilet of Florida -
The RED LINE in the diagram below is the TMDL where we should be - but it has been notoriously and continuously exceeded by far - no hope for Lake Okeechobee :
