Section 303(d) of the federal Clean Water Act (CWA) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) implementing regulations direct each state to identify and list waters, known as water quality limited segments (WQLSs), in which current required controls of a specified substance are inadequate to achieve water quality standards. For each WQLS, the State is to either establish a Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) of the specified substance that the waterbody can receive without violating water quality standards, or demonstrate that water quality standards are being met (CFR 2006c). Lower Wicomico River (basin number 02130301) was first identified on the 1996 303(d) List submitted to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency by the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE). The designated uses in Lower Wicomico River were listed as impaired by sediments (1996, 2002), nutrients (1996), and fecal coliform in tidal portions of the basin (1996), and impacts to biological communities in the non-tidal portions (2002). In 2004, the fecal coliform listing was refined by identifying one restricted shellfish harvesting area within the basin (MDE 2006). The assessment unit listing code for this area in Marylands 303(d) List is MD-WICMH-WICOMICO-RIVER. This document, upon EPA approval, establishes a TMDL of fecal coliform that will allow for the attainment of the shellfish harvesting designated use in the one restricted shellfish harvesting area of the Lower Wicomico River basin: the Lower Wicomico River mainstem. A TMDL for nutrients was completed in 2001.