Big Fork River Watershed Monitoring and Assessment Report
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z c s Big Fork River Watershed Monitoring and Assessment Report December 2013 Authors The MPCA is reducing printing and mailing costs MPCA Big Fork River Watershed Report Team: by using the Internet to distribute reports and April Lueck, Jesse Anderson, Mike Kennedy, Nolan information to wider audience. Visit our website Baratono, Dave Christopherson, David Duffey, for more information. Stacia Grayson, Jeff Jasperson, Benjamin Lundeen, MPCA reports are printed on 100 percent post- Bruce Monson, Shawn Nelson, Kris Parson, consumer recycled content paper manufactured Andrew Streitz. without chlorine or chlorine derivatives. Contributors / acknowledgements Citizen Stream Monitoring Program Volunteers Minnesota Department of Natural Resources Minnesota Department of Health Minnesota Department of Agriculture Project dollars provided by the Clean Water Fund (from the Clean Water, Land and Legacy Amendment) Minnesota Pollution Control Agency 520 Lafayette Road North | Saint Paul, MN 55155-4194 | www.pca.state.mn.us | 651-296-6300 Toll free 800-657-3864 | TTY 651-282-5332 This report is available in alternative formats upon request, and online at www.pca.state.mn.us Document number: wq-ws3-09030006b List of acronyms AUID Assessment Unit Identification MDNR Minnesota Department of Natural Determination Resources CCSI Channel Condition and Stability Index MINLEAP Minnesota Lake Eutrophication CD County Ditch Analysis Procedure CI Confidence Interval MPCA Minnesota Pollution Control Agency CLMP Citizen Lake Monitoring Program MSHA Minnesota Stream Habitat Assessment CR County Road MTS Meets the Standard? CSAH County State Aid Highway N Nitrogen CSMP Citizen Stream Monitoring Program Nitrate-N Nitrate Plus Nitrite Nitrogen CWA Clean Water Act NA Not Assessed CWLA Clean Water Legacy Act NHD National Hydrologic Dataset DOP Dissolved Orthophosphate NH3 Ammonia E Eutrophic NS Not Supporting EQuIS Environmental Quality Information NT No Trend System OP Orthophosphate EX Exceeds Criteria (Bacteria) P Phosphorous EXP Exceeds Criteria, Potential Impairment PCB Poly Chlorinated Biphenyls EXS Exceeds Criteria, Potential Severe PWI Protected Waters Inventory Impairment RNR River Nutrient Region FS Full Support SWAG Surface Water Assessment Grant FWMC Flow Weighted Mean Concentration SWCD Soil and Water Conservation District H Hypereutrophic SWUD State Water Use Database HUC Hydrologic Unit Code TALU Tiered Aquatic Life Uses IBI Index of Biotic Integrity TKN Total Kjeldahl Nitrogen IF Insufficient Information TMDL Total Maximum Daily Load K Potassium TP Total Phosphorous LRVW Limited Resource Value Water TSS Total Suspended Solids M Mesotrophic USGS United States Geological Survey MCES Metropolitan Council Environmental Services WPLMN Water Pollutant Load Monitoring Network MDA Minnesota Department of Agriculture MDH Minnesota Department of Health Contents Executive Summary ............................................................................................................................1 Introduction ......................................................................................................................................2 I. The Watershed Monitoring Approach .....................................................................................3 II. Assessment Methodology ......................................................................................................8 III. Watershed Overview ........................................................................................................... 12 IV. Watershed-Wide Data Collection Methodology .................................................................... 20 V. Individual Watershed Results ............................................................................................... 25 Upper Big Fork River Watershed HUC 9030006010 ................................................................ 29 Popple River WatershedHUC 09030006020 ........................................................................... 35 Upper Bowstring River Watershed HUC 09030006030 ........................................... 42 Bowstring River Watershed HUC 09030006040 ........................................... 48 Gale Brook Watershed HUC 09030006050 ........................................... 53 Middle Big Fork River Watershed HUC 09030006060 ........................................... 60 Caldwell Creek Watershed HUC 09030006070 ........................................... 66 Lower Middle Big Fork River Watershed HUC 09030006080 ........................................... 71 Dinner Creek Watershed HUC 09030006090 ........................................... 76 Sturgeon River Watershed HUC 09030006100 ........................................... 79 Lower Big Fork River Watershed HUC 09030006110 ........................................... 84 Bear River Watershed HUC 09030006120 ........................................... 88 VI. Watershed-wide Results and Discussion ............................................................................... 94 VII. Summaries and Recommendations ..................................................................................... 115 Literature Cited .............................................................................................................................. 116 Appendix 1 - Water chemistry definitions ................................................................................... 117 Appendix 2 - Intensive watershed monitoring water chemistry stations in the Big Fork River Watershed ........................................................................................................... 118 Appendix 3.1 - AUID table of stream assessment results (by parameter and beneficial use) ......... 119 Appendix 3.2 - Assessment results for lakes in the Big Fork River Watershed ............................... 123 Appendix 4.1 - Minnesota statewide IBI thresholds and confidence limits ................................... 129 Appendix 4.2 - Biological monitoring results – fish IBI (assessable reaches) .................................. 130 Appendix 4.3 - Biological monitoring results-macroinvertebrate IBI (assessable reaches) ............. 133 Appendix 5.1 - Good/fair/poor thresholds for biological stations on non-assessed channelized AUIDs 136 ...................................................................................................................................... Appendix 5.2 - Channelized stream reach and AUID IBI scores-FISH (non-assessed) ..................... 137 Appendix 5.3 - Channelized stream reach and AUID IBI scores-macrinverbrates (non-unassessed) ....................................................................................................................... 138 Appendix 6.1 - Minnesota’s ecoregion-based lake eutrophication standards ............................... 138 Appendix 6.2 - MINLEAP model estimates of phosphorus loads for lakes in the Big Fork River Watershed ........................................................................................................... 139 List of Figures Figure 1. Major watersheds within Minnesota (8-Digit HUC). ..............................................................3 Figure 2. Example of nested HUCs from the Whitewater River Watershed ...........................................4 Figure 3. Intensive watershed monitoring sites for streams in the Big Fork River Watershed ................5 Figure 4. Locations of local groups’, citizens’ and the MPCA’s lake monitoring in the Big Fork River Watershed ...................................................................................................................7 Figure 5. Flowchart of aquatic life use assessment process ................................................................ 10 Figure 6. The Big Fork River Watershed within the Northern Minnesota Wetlands and Northern Lakes and Forests ecoregions of northern Minnesota ......................................................... 12 Figure 7. Major land resource areas (MLRA) in the Big Fork River Watershed ..................................... 13 Figure 8. Land use in the Big Fork River Watershed ........................................................................... 15 Figure 9. Statewide precipitation levels during the 2012 water year .................................................. 17 Figure 10. Precipitation trends in north-central Minnesota 1990 – 2011, with five year running average ......................................................................................................... 17 Figure 11. Depiction of groundwater flow adjacent to a river, with relative time of transit ................ 18 Figure 12. Locations of permitted groundwater withdrawals in the Big Fork River Watershed ............ 19 Figure 13. Total annual groundwater and surface water withdrawals in the Big Fork River Watershed (1990-2010) .............................................................................................. 19 Figure 14. Hydrograph and annual runoff for the Big Fork River near Big Falls (2007-2010) ................. 20 Figure 15. Locations of area MDNR observation wells ....................................................................... 23 Figure 16. Locations of wells in the MPCA Ambient Groundwater Monitoring Program ...................... 24 Figure 17. Land use within each HUC 11 Watershed .......................................................................... 27 Figure 18. Currently listed impaired waters by parameter and land use characteristics