Total Maximum Daily Loads for the Wakatomika Creek Watershed
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State of Ohio Environmental Protection Agency Division of Surface Water Total Maximum Daily Loads for the Wakatomika Creek Watershed Final Report August 21, 2006 Bob Taft, Governor Joseph P. Koncelik, Director Wakatomika Creek Watershed TMDLs Table of Contents 1.0 Introduction......................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Study Area ................................................................................................. 1 1.2 Condition of the Watershed ....................................................................... 3 1.3 Causes and Sources of Impairment........................................................... 4 1.4 Scope of this Report .................................................................................. 4 2.0 Loading Analysis.............................................................................................. 11 2.1 Bacteria.................................................................................................... 12 2.1.1 Bacteria Methods ......................................................................... 13 2.1.2 Bacteria Results ........................................................................... 22 2.2 Habitat Alteration ..................................................................................... 32 2.2.1 Target Development and TMDL Methodology.............................. 33 2.2.2 TMDL Scores ............................................................................... 34 2.2.3 Target Deviation........................................................................... 37 2.2.4 Margin of Safety ........................................................................... 37 2.3 Mine Drainage ......................................................................................... 37 2.3.1 Mine Drainage Methods ............................................................... 38 2.3.2 Mine Drainage Target Deviation and Margin of Safety................. 40 2.3.3 Critical Condition .......................................................................... 41 2.3.4 Summary...................................................................................... 44 3.0 Public Participation .......................................................................................... 46 4.0 Implementation and Monitoring Recommendations ..................................... 47 4.1 Bacteria.................................................................................................... 47 4.1.1 Livestock and Manure Management ............................................ 47 4.1.2 Home Septic Treatment Systems................................................. 49 4.2 Habitat and Sedimentation....................................................................... 50 4.3 Mining ...................................................................................................... 53 4.4 Reasonable Assurances .......................................................................... 53 4.4.1 Minimum Elements of an Approvable Implementation Plan ......... 53 4.4.2 Reasonable Assurances Summary .............................................. 55 4.5 Process for Monitoring and Revision ....................................................... 56 References ................................................................................................................ 56 i Wakatomika Creek Watershed TMDLs List of Tables Table 1 Land use in the Wakatomika watershed by 11 digit HUC ....................... 2 Table 2 NPDES dischargers within the Wakatomika Creek watershed ............... 3 Table 3 Attainment status for the Wakatomika Creek basin ............................... 6 Table 4 Bacteria data for the three permitted dischargers to Wakatomika Creek .................................................................................16 Table 5 Wakatomika Creek site summary ...........................................................17 Table 6 Landuse data for four study sites (USGS, 1992) ....................................21 Table 7 Bacteria data and statistics for four study Sites in the Wakatomika Creek basin........................................................................27 Table 8 Bacteria data from the Bladensburg Tributary ........................................29 Table 9 Details of habitat and bedload TMDLs ...................................................35 Table 10 QHEI assessment results and habitat TMDL scores ..............................36 Table 11 Habitat TMDL deviation table..................................................................37 Table 12 Aquatic life use attainment status of mine affected areas ......................40 Table 13 Target deviation for various mine drainage indicator parameters ...........41 Table 14 Summary of TMDL loads for mining impairments ...................................45 List of Figures Figure 1 The Wakatomika Creek watershed study area ...................................... 5 Figure 2 Overview of four study subbasins within the Wakatomika watershed...........................................................................14 Figure 3 Wakatomika Creek bacteria sample dates vs. gage flow........................17 Figure 4 Flow vs. bacteria for three sites in the Wakatomika Creek basin............18 Figure 5 Unrestricted livestock access upstream of the Brushy Fork site.............19 Figure 6 Fecal coliform load duration curves .......................................................23 Figure 7 Home septic discharging to stream.........................................................24 Figure 8 Manure in tanks at the Winding Fork farm ..............................................26 Figure 9 Mike and Kenny Johnson........................................................................31 Figure 10 Priest Run riparian removal ...................................................................32 Figure 11 Map of mining in the Wakatomika Creek basin.......................................39 Figure 12 A comparison of mean manganese load.................................................42 Figure 13 Flow to concentration relationships for various mine drainage parameters...............................................................................43 Figure 14 TDS load vs. flow at Mill Creek, CR 18, RM 3.3 .....................................44 Figure 15 Mine drainage parameters during high flow conditions...........................44 ii Wakatomika Creek Watershed TMDLs Acknowledgements The following Ohio EPA staff provided technical services for this project: Biological and Chemical Water Quality – Ed Moore, Brian Alsdorf, Kelly Capuzzi Recreational Use Issues – Chris Skalski Point Source Issues – Tim Campbell and Larry Korecko Storm Water Issues – Aaron Wolfe and Chris Hunt Nonpoint source issues – Dan Imhoff Water Quality Modeling – Keith Orr Project Leaders – Kelly Capuzzi and Dan Imhoff Reviewer – Dave Altfater The Ohio EPA appreciates the cooperation of the property owners who allowed access to Wakatomika Creek and its tributaries. iii Wakatomika Creek Watershed TMDLs iv Wakatomika Creek Watershed TMDLs 1.0 Introduction The Clean Water Act (CWA) Section 303(d) requires States, Territories, and authorized Tribes to list and prioritize waters for which technology-based limits alone do not ensure attainment of water quality standards. Lists of these impaired waters (the Section 303(d) lists) are made available to the public and submitted to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) for approval in even-numbered years. Further, the CWA and U.S. EPA regulations require that Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs) be developed for all waters on the Section 303(d) lists. In simple terms, a TMDL can be thought of as a cleanup plan for a watershed that is not meeting water quality standards. A TMDL is defined as a calculation of the maximum amount of a pollutant that a waterbody can receive and still meet water quality standards and an allocation of that quantity among the sources of the pollutant. Ultimately, the goal of Ohio=s TMDL process is full attainment of Water Quality Standards (WQS), which would subsequently lead to the removal of the water bodies from the 303(d) list. The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (Ohio EPA) has traditionally listed impaired waters and developed TMDLs on a watershed basis, defining the watershed assessment unit as the 11-digit Hydrologic Unit Code (HUC) system (as established by the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS, www.oh.nrcs.usda.gov)). The Ohio EPA identified Wakatomika Creek as impaired on the 2004 303(d) list, and the 2006 303(d) listing is based on the data used to complete this report. Wakatomika Creek is comprised of two assessment units: • 05040004 020 (upper, headwaters to below Brushy Fork) • 05040004 030 (lower, below Brushy Fork to Muskingum River). Copies of the 2004 and 2006 303(d) lists can be accessed at: http://www.epa.state.oh.us/dsw/tmdl/index.html 1.1 Study Area Wakatomika Creek is a sub-watershed of the Muskingum River (Ohio River drainage) and is located in east central Ohio in Knox, Licking, Coshocton, and Muskingum counties (Figure 1). The total drainage area is 234 square miles. The mainstem of Wakatomika Creek is 42 miles long, beginning in Knox County near the town of Bladensburg and entering the Muskingum River near the town of Dresden. Summaries of land use statistics are found in Table 1. The Wakatomika watershed lies in two ecoregions that are roughly defined by the southern