St. Louis Watershed Monitoring and Assessment Report
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z c St. Louis River Watershed Monitoring and Assessment Report March 2013 Authors The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency is Chad R. Anderson, Scott Niemela, Jesse Anderson, reducing printing and mailing costs by using the Stacia Grayson, Bruce Monson, Dave Internet to distribute reports and information to Christopherson, Ben Lundeen, Jeff Jasperson, wider audience. Visit our website for more Mike Kennedy, Kris Parson, and information. Mike Kelly MPCA reports are printed on 100 percent post- consumer recycled content paper manufactured Contributors without chlorine or chlorine derivatives. Citizen Lake Monitoring Program volunteers Minnesota Department of Natural Resources Minnesota Department of Health Minnesota Department of Agriculture Metropolitan Council Environmental Services Natural Resources Research Institute 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-ws3-04010201b Table of Contents Executive Summary ............................................................................................................... 1 I. Introduction ............................................................................................................... 2 II. The Watershed Monitoring Approach ......................................................................... 3 Load monitoring network ..................................................................................................................... 3 Intensive watershed monitoring ........................................................................................................... 4 Lake monitoring ................................................................................................................................... 5 Citizen and local monitoring ................................................................................................................. 5 III. Assessment Methodology .......................................................................................... 8 Water quality standards ....................................................................................................................... 8 IV. Watershed Overview ................................................................................................ 11 Physical setting .................................................................................................................................. 11 Land use summary ............................................................................................................................. 12 Surface water hydrology .................................................................................................................... 14 Climate and precipitation ................................................................................................................... 15 V. Watershed wide Data Collection Methodology ......................................................... 16 Load monitoring ................................................................................................................................ 16 Stream water sampling ...................................................................................................................... 17 Stream biological sampling ................................................................................................................ 17 Fish contaminants .............................................................................................................................. 20 Lake water sampling .......................................................................................................................... 20 VI. Individual HUC-11 Watershed Results ....................................................................... 21 Stream assessment ............................................................................................................................ 21 Stream habitat results ........................................................................................................................ 22 Outlet water chemistry results ............................................................................................................ 22 Lake water chemistry ......................................................................................................................... 22 HUC-11 and HUC-8 figures .................................................................................................................. 22 Upper St. Louis Watershed Unit HUC 04010201015 ......................................................................... 23 Partridge River Watershed Unit HUC 04010201020 .......................................................................... 29 Embarrass River Watershed Unit HUC 04010201030 .......................................................................... 34 Mud Hen Creek Watershed Unit HUC 04010201040 .......................................................................... 40 Two Rivers Watershed Unit HUC 04010201050 ........................................................................... 45 Middle St. Louis River Watershed Unit HUC 04010201060 ............................................................... 50 Upper East Swan Watershed Unit HUC 04010201070 ....................................................................... 55 West Swan Watershed Unit HUC 04010201080 ................................................................................ 61 Lower East Swan Watershed Unit HUC 04010201090 ..................................................................... 65 Upper Whiteface River Watershed Unit HUC 04010201100 ......................................................... 70 Middle Whiteface River Watershed HUC 04010201110 ............................................................. 75 Paleface River Watershed Unit HUC 04010201120 .......................................................................... 80 Lower Whiteface River Watershed Unit HUC 04010201130 .............................................................. 84 Upper Floodwood River Watershed Unit HUC 04010201140 .............................................................. 89 Lower Floodwood River Watershed Unit HUC 04010201150 .............................................................. 93 East Savannah Watershed Unit HUC 04010201160 ........................................................................ 99 Lower St. Louis Watershed Unit HUC 04010201170 ....................................................................... 104 Stony Brook Watershed Unit HUC 04010201180 ........................................................................... 109 Simian Creek Watershed Unit HUC 04010201190 .......................................................................... 114 White Pine River Watershed Unit HUC 04010201200 ..................................................................... 118 Midway River Watershed Unit HUC 04010201210 ...................................................................... 123 St. Louis Bay Watershed Unit HUC 04010201220 ........................................................................ 127 VII. Watershed-Wide Results and Discussion ................................................................ 132 Load monitoring .............................................................................................................................. 132 Total Suspended Solids ..................................................................................................................... 135 Total Phosphorus ............................................................................................................................. 136 Dissolved Orthophosphate ............................................................................................................... 136 Nitrate plus Nitrite – Nitrogen .......................................................................................................... 136 Stream water quality ....................................................................................................................... 139 Lake water quality ........................................................................................................................... 139 Biological Monitoring ....................................................................................................................... 139 Pollutant trends ............................................................................................................................... 158 VIII. Summaries and Recommendations ......................................................................... 166 IX. Literature Cited ...................................................................................................... 168 X. Appendices ............................................................................................................ 169 Appendix 1. Water chemistry parameter definitions ........................................................................ 169 Appendix 2. Intensive water chemistry monitoring stations in the St. Louis River Watershed ............ 171 Appendix 3. AUID table of results by parameter and beneficial