2018 White River Tactical Basin Plan
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Stevens, Wells, Waits, Ompompanoosuc & Connecticut River Direct Tributaries Basin 14 Tactical Basin Plan South Branch Waits River, Bradford February 2020 | Draft Tactical Basin Plan was prepared in accordance with 10 VSA § 1253(d), the Vermont Water Quality Standards1, the Federal Clean Water Act and 40 CFR 130.6, and the Vermont Surface Water Management Strategy. Tributaries – Basin 14 2020 TACTICAL BASIN PL Plan prepared by: Danielle Owczarski GIS & Mapping support: Sean Regalado The Vermont Agency of Natural Resources is an equal opportunity agency and offers all persons the benefits of participating in each of its programs and competing in all areas of employment regardless of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, sexual preference, or other non-merit factors. This document is available in alternative formats upon request. Call 802-828-1535 VT Relay Service for the Hearing Impaired 1-800-253-0191 TDD>Voice - 1-800-253-0195 Voice>TDD BASIN 14 – STEVENS, WELLS, WAITS, OMPOMPANOOSUC & CT DIRECT TACTICAL BASIN PLAN – DRAFT i List of Basin 14 Towns Barnet Groton Peacham Topsham Bradford Hartford Ryegate Tunbridge* Chelsea* Newbury Sharon* Vershire Corinth Norwich Strafford Washington Fairlee Orange Thetford West Fairlee *Only a very small area of the town is in the watershed and is covered in more detail in corresponding basin plans. Basin 14 – Towns & Sub-basins BASIN 14 – STEVENS, WELLS, WAITS, OMPOMPANOOSUC & CT DIRECT TACTICAL BASIN PLAN – DRAFT iii Basin 14 Tactical Plan Overview Contents Executive Summary ......................................................................................................................... 1 Target Watershed Areas for Restoration & Protection .............................................................. 4 What is a Tactical Basin Plan? ......................................................................................................... 6 Chapter 1 – Basin Description and Conditions ............................................................................... 8 A. Basin 14 Watershed Overview ................................................................................................ 8 B. Land Use and Water Quality ................................................................................................... 9 Chapter 2 – Priority Areas for Surface Water Protection ............................................................. 13 A. Surface Water Classification ................................................................................................. 14 Class 1 Wetland Designation ..................................................................................................... 17 Warm and Cold-Water Fish Habitat Designations .................................................................... 19 Outstanding Resource Waters Designation .............................................................................. 19 B. Identification of Existing Uses ............................................................................................... 20 Chapter 3 – Priority Areas for Surface Water Restoration ........................................................... 20 A. Stressed or Impaired Surface Waters ................................................................................... 20 B. Basin Specific Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs) ............................................................. 24 Chapter 4 – Strategies to Address Pollution by Source Sector ..................................................... 26 A. Agriculture ............................................................................................................................. 27 B. Developed Lands ................................................................................................................... 30 C. Wastewater ........................................................................................................................... 35 D. Natural Resources ................................................................................................................. 38 Chapter 5 – The Basin 14 Implementation Table ......................................................................... 53 A. Progress in Basin 14 .............................................................................................................. 53 B. Basin 14 Priority Restoration, Protection, Monitoring & Assessment Actions ..................... 54 C. Coordination of Watershed Partners .................................................................................... 66 List of Acronyms ............................................................................................................................ 67 References .................................................................................................................................... 69 Appendix A. 2015 Basin 14 TBP Implementation Table Status Update ....................................... 71 Appendix B. Biological Water Quality Monitoring Results ........................................................... 94 Appendix C. Municipal Water Quality Protectiveness Table ........................................................ 98 Appendix D. Dams in Basin 14 .................................................................................................... 106 BASIN 14 – STEVENS, WELLS, WAITS, OMPOMPANOOSUC & CT DIRECT TACTICAL BASIN PLAN – DRAFT iv List of Figures Figure 1. Protection and restoration priorities for the 2020 Basin 14 plan. .................................. 2 Figure 2. Basin 14 2015 implementation table status. ................................................................... 3 Figure 3. Steps in the tactical basin planning process .................................................................... 6 Figure 4. The ANR Clean Water Portal is a tool used by watershed partners to identify, assess, and track water quality projects statewide.. .................................................................................. 7 Figure 5. Basin 14 is located in east central VT and is a 580 square mile watershed; the same size of the island of Oahu in Hawaii where the historic attack on Pearl Harbor took place. ......... 8 Figure 6. Land cover estimates for the thirteen sub-basins of Basin 14. The Upper Waits River and Ompompanoosuc River are the largest sub-watershed in Basin 14 ..................................... 11 Figure 7. Recommended widths of shoreline vegetation for protection. .................................... 12 Figure 8. Actions identified for water quality protection in the 2020 Basin 14 TBP .................... 13 Figure 9. Recommended reclassification candidates and priority waters for protection for fishing, aquatic life and wetlands. ................................................................................................ 18 Figure 10. Priority areas for restoration in Basin 14. .................................................................... 22 Figure 11. Agricultural land cover in Basin 14 shown in solid orange .......................................... 27 Figure 12. Scorecard information for lakes and ponds in Basin 14 .............................................. 39 Figure 13. A gap analysis of river watersheds identified a number of priority areas for biological monitoring during the 2022 sampling rotation for Basin 14 ........................................................ 45 Figure 14. Geomorphic condition of assessed streams in Basin 14 from reference to poor condition ....................................................................................................................................... 46 Figure 15. Status of the 85 priority actions identified in the 2015 Basin 14 Plan ........................ 53 Figure B1. Biological monitoring results for fish and macroinvertebrate assessments in the upper half of Basin 14 from 2015-2019 ........................................................................................ 96 Figure B2. Biological monitoring results for fish and macroinvertebrate assessments in the lower half of Basin 14 from 2015-2019 ........................................................................................ 97 Figure C1. Non-historic dams located in Basin 14 ...................................................................... 107 BASIN 14 – STEVENS, WELLS, WAITS, OMPOMPANOOSUC & CT DIRECT TACTICAL BASIN PLAN – DRAFT v List of Tables Table 1. Eleven priority waterbodies for restoration, their primary stressors and priority actions for remediation ............................................................................................................................... 4 Table 2. A list of uses that can be placed into each water class in the Vermont Water Quality Standards. ..................................................................................................................................... 15 Table 3. Class A(2) designated public water sources in the Basin 14. .......................................... 15 Table 4. Basin 14 priority waters and pollutants .......................................................................... 23 Table 5. Completed agricultural practices in Basin 14 funded by AAFM since SFY2016-2019. ... 28 Table 6. Results of agriculture clean water projects funded by State of Vermont agencies completed, SFY 2016-2019 in the Ompompanoosuc, Stevens, Waits, Wells Rivers watershed .. 29 Table 7. Towns with completed stormwater mapping reports ranked by number of high