diff --git a/src/acl/external/time_quota/ext_time_quota_acl.8 b/src/acl/external/time_quota/ext_time_quota_acl.8
index 579e0af17d7..92fd6611fbc 100644
--- a/src/acl/external/time_quota/ext_time_quota_acl.8
+++ b/src/acl/external/time_quota/ext_time_quota_acl.8
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ Version 1.0
 .
 .SH SYNOPSIS
 .if !'po4a'hide' .B ext_time_quota_acl
-.if !'po4a'hide' .B "[\-b database] [\-d] [\-p pauselen] [\-h] configfile
+.if !'po4a'hide' .B "[\-b database] [\-d level] [\-p pauselen] [\-h] configfile
 .
 .SH DESCRIPTION
 .B ext_time_quota_acl
@@ -36,7 +36,7 @@ Default is 300 seconds (5 minutes).
 .
 .if !'po4a'hide' .TP
 .if !'po4a'hide' .B "\-d"
-Enables debug logging to stderr.
+Sets verbosity level for debugging section 82 (0-9; defaults to 1; see debug_options).
 .
 .if !'po4a'hide' .TP
 .if !'po4a'hide' .B "\-h"
diff --git a/src/acl/external/time_quota/ext_time_quota_acl.cc b/src/acl/external/time_quota/ext_time_quota_acl.cc
index 6a8796a18cb..32765382e96 100644
--- a/src/acl/external/time_quota/ext_time_quota_acl.cc
+++ b/src/acl/external/time_quota/ext_time_quota_acl.cc
@@ -328,13 +328,13 @@ static void usage(void)
     debugs(MY_DEBUG_SECTION, DBG_CRITICAL, "Wrong usage. Please reconfigure in squid.conf.");
 
     std::cerr <<
-              "Usage: " << program_name << " [-d] [-b dbpath] [-p pauselen] [-h] configfile\n"
-              "	-d            enable debugging output\n"
-              "	-l logfile    log messages to logfile\n"
-              "	-b dbpath     Path where persistent session database will be kept\n"
-              "	              If option is not used, then " DEFAULT_QUOTA_DB " will be used.\n"
-              "	-p pauselen   length in seconds to describe a pause between 2 requests.\n"
-              "	-h            show show command line help.\n"
+              "Usage: " << program_name << " [-d level] [-b dbpath] [-p pauselen] [-h] configfile\n" <<
+              "	-d level      set section " << MY_DEBUG_SECTION << " debugging to the specified level,\n"
+              "               overwriting Squid's debug_options (default: 1)\n"
+              "	-b dbpath     Path where persistent session database will be kept\n" <<
+              "	              If option is not used, then " << DEFAULT_QUOTA_DB << " will be used.\n" <<
+              "	-p pauselen   length in seconds to describe a pause between 2 requests.\n" <<
+              "	-h            show show command line help.\n" <<
               "configfile is a file containing time quota definitions.\n";
 }
 
@@ -346,10 +346,10 @@ int main(int argc, char **argv)
     program_name = argv[0];
     Debug::NameThisHelper("ext_time_quota_acl");
 
-    while ((opt = getopt(argc, argv, "dp:b:h")) != -1) {
+    while ((opt = getopt(argc, argv, "d:p:b:h")) != -1) {
         switch (opt) {
         case 'd':
-            Debug::Levels[MY_DEBUG_SECTION] = DBG_DATA;
+            Debug::parseOptions(ToSBuf(MY_DEBUG_SECTION, ",", optarg).c_str());
             break;
         case 'b':
             db_path = optarg;