Watershed health July 2019 Mississippi River – Sartell Monitoring and Assessment Report Authors The MPCA is reducing printing and mailing costs by using the Internet to distribute reports and Andrew Frank information to wider audience. Visit our Jordan Donatell, Cadie Olson, Ben Lundeen, Bruce Monson, Shawn Nelson, Michael Bourdaghs, website for more information. Sophia Vaughan, Anthony J. Dingmann, Phil MPCA reports are printed on 100% post- Votruba, Kara Fitzpatrick consumer recycled content paper manufactured without chlorine or chlorine Contributors/acknowledgements derivatives. 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 | 651-296-6300 | 800-657-3864 | Or use your preferred relay service. | [email protected] This report is available in alternative formats upon request, and online at www.pca.state.mn.us. Document number: wq-ws3-07010201b Contents Tables ............................................................................................................................................................ ii Figures .......................................................................................................................................................... iii List of acronyms ............................................................................................................................................ v Executive summary ....................................................................................................................................... 1 Introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 3 The watershed monitoring approach ....................................................................................................... 4 Assessment methodology ......................................................................................................................... 8 Watershed overview ............................................................................................................................... 12 Watershed-wide data collection methodology ...................................................................................... 31 Individual aggregated HUC-12 subwatershed results ................................................................................. 35 Aggregated HUC-12 subwatersheds ....................................................................................................... 35 Upper Platte River HUC 0701020104-02 .................................................................... 36 Skunk River HUC 0701020103-01 .................................................................... 41 Hillman Creek HUC 0701020103-02 ..................................................................... 44 Lower Platte River HUC 0701020104-01 ..................................................................... 47 Little Rock Creek HUC 0701020105-01 ..................................................................... 51 City of Sartell – Mississippi River HUC 0701020107-01 ...................................................................... 56 North Two River HUC 0701020101-03 ...................................................................... 59 Two River HUC 0701020101-01 ...................................................................... 62 South Two River HUC 0701020101-02 ...................................................................... 65 Spunk Creek HUC 0701020102-01 ...................................................................... 70 Watab River HUC 0701020106-01....................................................................... 74 Watershed-wide results and discussion ..................................................................................................... 78 Stream water quality .............................................................................................................................. 78 Lake water quality .................................................................................................................................. 79 Fish contaminant results ......................................................................................................................... 79 Pollutant load monitoring ....................................................................................................................... 82 Stream flow ............................................................................................................................................. 89 Wetland condition .................................................................................................................................. 90 Transparency trends for the Mississippi River-Sartell watershed ........................................................... 98 Remote sensing for lakes in the Mississippi River-Sartell watershed ..................................................... 98 Priority waters for protection and restoration in the Mississippi River-Sartell Watershed .................. 100 Summaries and recommendations ........................................................................................................... 101 Literature cited.......................................................................................................................................... 104 Appendix 1 – Water chemistry definitions ............................................................................................ 107 Appendix 2.1 – Intensive watershed monitoring water chemistry stations in the Mississippi River – Sartell Watershed ................................................................................................................................. 108 Appendix 2.2 – Intensive watershed monitoring biological monitoring stations in the Mississippi River- Sartell Watershed ................................................................................................................................. 109 Appendix 3.1 – Minnesota statewide IBI thresholds and confidence limits ......................................... 112 Appendix 3.2 – Biological monitoring results – fish IBI (assessable reaches) [biologist] ...................... 113 Appendix 3.3 – Biological monitoring results-macroinvertebrate IBI (assessable reaches) [biologist] 117 Appendix 4.1 – Fish species found during biological monitoring surveys ............................................. 120 Appendix 4.2 – Macroinvertebrate species found during biological monitoring surveys ..................... 122 Appendix 5 – Minnesota Stream Habitat Assessment results .............................................................. 130 Appendix 6 – Lake protection and prioritization results ....................................................................... 134 Appendix 7 – Stream protection and prioritization results ................................................................... 136 i Tables Table 1. Tiered aquatic life use standards. ................................................................................................... 9 Table 2. Aquatic life and recreation assessments on stream reaches: Upper Platte River Aggregated HUC- 12. Reaches are organized upstream to downstream in the table............................................................. 36 Table 3. Lake assessments: Upper Platte River Aggregated HUC-12. ......................................................... 38 Table 4. Aquatic life and recreation assessments on stream reaches: Skunk River Aggregated HUC-12. Reaches are organized upstream to downstream in the table. ................................................................. 41 Table 5. Aquatic life and recreation assessments on stream reaches: Hillman Creek Aggregated HUC-12. Reaches are organized upstream to downstream in the table.[ ................................................................ 44 Table 6. Aquatic life and recreation assessments on stream reaches: Lower Platte River Aggregated HUC- 12. Reaches are organized upstream to downstream in the table............................................................. 47 Table 7. Lake assessments: Lower Platte River Aggregated HUC-12. ......................................................... 48 Table 8. Aquatic life and recreation assessments on stream reaches: Little Rock Creek Aggregated HUC- 12. Reaches are organized upstream to downstream in the table............................................................. 51 Table 9. Lake assessments: Little Rock Creek Aggregated HUC-12. ........................................................... 53 Table 10. Aquatic life and recreation assessments on stream reaches: City of Sartell – Mississippi River Aggregated HUC-12. Reaches are organized upstream to downstream in the table. ................................ 56 Table 11. Aquatic life and recreation assessments on stream reaches: North Two River Aggregated HUC- 12. Reaches are organized upstream to downstream in the table............................................................. 59 Table 12. Lake assessments: North Two River Aggregated HUC-12. .......................................................... 60 Table 13. Aquatic life and