text: In the US, individual states are allowed to develop their own water quality standards based on EPA's recommendations under the Clean Water Act of 1977.  Once water quality standards are approved, states are tasked with monitoring their surface waters to determine where impairments occur, and watershed plans called Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs) are developed to direct water quality improvement efforts including changes to allowable bacteria loading by point sources and recommendations for changes to practices that reduce nonpoint-source contributions to bacteria loads.  Also, many states have beach monitoring programs to warn swimmers when high levels of indicator bacteria are detected.