Kalamazoo River Watershed Management Plan Prepared by the Kalamazoo River Watershed Council March 2011 This Nonpoint Source Pollution Control project has been funded in part through the Michigan Nonpoint Source Program by the United States Environmental Protection Agency under assistance agreement #2006-0148 to the Kalamazoo River Watershed Council for the Kalamazoo River Watershed Management Plan. The contents of the document do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the EPA, nor does the mention of trade names or commercial products constitute endorsement or recommendation for use. Recommended Citation: Kalamazoo River Watershed Council. 2011. Kalamazoo River Watershed Management Plan. Prepared for the Michigan Nonpoint Source Program (Michigan Department of Environmental Quality and the United States Environmental Protection Agency). ii Acknowledgments This Watershed Management Plan is the culmination of several years of work on the part of the Kalamazoo River Watershed Council and particularly our Coordinator and the lead author of this report, Jeffrey A. Spoelstra. Jeff attended innumerable meetings in the community, studied dozens of reports, and assimilated and compiled the information presented here. The Plan was greatly enhanced by the technical and scientific support of Kieser & Associates, LLC, who contributed with spatial data analysis, map production, and modeling. We would also like to acknowledge our many partners in the quest to improve watershed protection and management in the Kalamazoo River watershed. Funding to prepare this Plan was provided primarily through a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Section 319 grant administered by the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ; also known as MDNRE during the report preparation). Janelle Hohm and Julia Kirkwood of the MDEQ were especially helpful in providing guidance and support. Our work on non-point source pollution has been conducted in close collaboration with the Kalamazoo River/Lake Allegan Total Maximum Daily Load implementation committee, and we received input from many other governmental and non-governmental entities. Stephen K. Hamilton, PhD President Kalamazoo River Watershed Council iii Table of Contents 1. Introduction _________________________________________________________ 1 1.1. The Challenge of Watershed Management ________________________________ 4 1.2. The Purpose of this Plan _______________________________________________ 5 1.3. Guiding Principles ____________________________________________________ 6 1.4. Structure and Use of this Plan __________________________________________ 7 2. Watershed Description ______________________________________________ 11 2.1. Geology and Groundwater ____________________________________________ 11 2.2. Hydrology: Ground and Surface Waters ________________________________ 16 2.3. Land Use and Cover _________________________________________________ 20 2.4. The Kalamazoo River Mainstem _______________________________________ 26 2.5. Dams and Reservoirs ________________________________________________ 27 3. Community Profile _________________________________________________ 30 3.1. Synopsis of Regional History __________________________________________ 30 3.2. Governmental and Political Structure __________________________________ 32 3.3. Urban and Suburban Centers and Industrial Activity _____________________ 37 3.4. Agriculture _________________________________________________________ 38 3.5. Demographics, Future Growth and Development _________________________ 38 3.6. Outdoor Recreation _________________________________________________ 39 4. Natural Features and their Protection _________________________________ 41 4.1. Terrestrial Ecosystems _______________________________________________ 43 4.2. Streams and Rivers __________________________________________________ 44 4.3. Lakes _____________________________________________________________ 46 4.4. Wetlands and Floodplains ____________________________________________ 47 4.5. Rare Features and Species ____________________________________________ 51 4.6. Invasive Species (aquatic and wetland) __________________________________ 52 5. The Legacy of Contaminated Sediments ________________________________ 53 5.1. PCBs in the River System and Food Webs _______________________________ 53 5.2. Superfund _________________________________________________________ 55 5.3. Area of Concern ____________________________________________________ 58 5.4. Overlapping Superfund and AOC Issues ________________________________ 60 5.5. Other Trace Contaminants ___________________________________________ 60 6. Water Resource Management ________________________________________ 62 iv 6.1. Watershed Management: Setting Boundaries ____________________________ 62 6.2. Land Use and Water Quality __________________________________________ 62 6.3. Regulatory Authority for Water Resources ______________________________ 63 6.4. Roads and Water Quality _____________________________________________ 70 6.5. Water Bodies (rivers, drains, streams, lakes) _____________________________ 72 6.6. Local Water Quality Protection Policies _________________________________ 73 6.7. Private Land Management ____________________________________________ 75 7. Water Quality Summary ____________________________________________ 79 7.1. Designated and Desired Uses __________________________________________ 79 7.2. Water Quality: General Considerations _________________________________ 90 7.3. Groundwater Quantity and Quality ____________________________________ 92 7.4. Loading to Lake Michigan ____________________________________________ 95 8. Development of the Kalamazoo River Watershed Management Plan _________ 96 8.1. Public Input and Stakeholder Concerns _________________________________ 96 8.2. Water Quality Evaluation: Linking Pollutant Loads to Water Quality _______ 97 9. Prioritization - Areas, Pollutants, Sources _____________________________ 113 9.1. Urban/Suburban Mitigation Areas ____________________________________ 120 9.2. Rural/Agricultural Mitigation Areas __________________________________ 121 9.3. Ecosystem Restoration Areas to Ameliorate Non-Point Source Pollution _____ 123 9.4. High-Quality Aquatic Ecosystems Preservation Areas ____________________ 124 10. Goals and Objectives ____________________________________________ 126 10.1. Goals for Designated Uses ___________________________________________ 126 10.2. Goals for Desired Uses ______________________________________________ 131 11. Implementation Strategies ________________________________________ 135 11.1. Action Plan by Priority Area _________________________________________ 135 11.2. Information and Education __________________________________________ 145 12. Moving from Plan to Action and Results ____________________________ 154 12.1. Knowledge and Awareness ___________________________________________ 154 12.2. Documenting Implementation ________________________________________ 154 12.3. Monitoring Water Quality ___________________________________________ 154 12.4. Estimating Pollutant Load Reductions _________________________________ 161 12.5. Evaluating the Watershed Management Plan ___________________________ 163 13. References cited ___________________________________________________ 164 v Attachments: Attachment 1. Partnership Agreement Attachment 2. Crosswalk Table of Subwatersheds as Defined by Project, Agency, and Management Unit Attachment 3. Build-Out Analysis and Urban Cost Scenarios Attachment 4. Road Stream Crossing Data for the Kalamazoo River Watershed Streambank Erosion Sites Attachment 5. Common Pollutants, Sources and Water Quality Standards Attachment 6. Individual Waterbody Assessment Attachment 7. Buffer Analysis Memo Attachment 8. Kalamazoo River BMP Screening Tool Attachment 9. BMP Descriptions, Costs, and Load Reductions per Area Treated Attachment 10. Public Comment Attachment 11. Impaired Waterbodies Attachment 12. Watershed and TMDL Phosphorus Load Reduction Goal Calculations vi Tables Table 1. Kalamazoo River subwatershed plans. ______________________________________________ 9 Table 2 . Soils within the Kalamazoo River Watershed (from the STATSGO data base). ______________ 13 Table 3. Land use breakdown for the entire Kalamazoo River Watershed based on the data in Figure 9. _ 22 Table 4. Land use breakdown for each major watershed management planning area (see Table 1) in the Kalamazoo River Watershed (percentage of subwatershed area). _______________________________ 23 Table 5. Land use breakdown for areas without a WMP in the Kalamazoo River Watershed (percentage of subwatershed area) . __________________________________________________________________ 24 Table 6. Political boundaries within the Kalamazoo River Watershed. ___________________________ 32 Table 7. Major Streams in the Kalamazoo River Watershed. ___________________________________ 45 Table 8. Major lakes in the Kalamazoo River Watershed. _____________________________________ 47 Table 9. Total area (in acres) of potential wetland restoration areas based on restoration rank for all major subwatersheds, where rank 1 is highest priority. ____________________________________________ 48 Table 10. Number, and average size, of wetlands area per restoration rank. _______________________ 50 Table 11. Private Land Protection Options. _______________________________________________ 76 Table 12. Private Land Management Programs.**___________________________________________ 77 Table 13. Designated use definitions. _____________________________________________________