Total Maximum Daily Loads for the Paint Creek Watershed
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Total Maximum Daily July 2012 Loads for the Paint Creek Watershed Final Report July 19, 2012 John R. Kasich, Governor Mary Taylor, Lt. Governor Scott J. Nally, Director Photo caption: Paint Creek at State Route 753 upstream of Greenfield in Fayette County, Ohio. Ohio EPA received financial assistance for this work from U.S. EPA and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Paint Creek Watershed TMDLs Table of Contents 1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 1 1.1 The Clean Water Act Requirement to Address Impaired Waters .................................. 1 1.2 Public Involvement ....................................................................................................... 6 1.3 Organization of Report ................................................................................................. 7 2 Characteristics and Expectations of the Watershed ....................................................... 8 2.1 Watershed Characteristics ........................................................................................... 8 2.1.1 Population ........................................................................................................ 8 2.1.2 Land Use ......................................................................................................... 9 2.1.3 Point Source Discharges .................................................................................. 9 2.1.4 Public Drinking Water Supplies .......................................................................11 2.2 Water Quality Standards .............................................................................................11 2.2.1 Aquatic Life Use ..............................................................................................12 2.2.2 Recreation Use ...............................................................................................13 2.2.3 Public Drinking Water Supply Use ...................................................................14 2.2.4 Human Health (Fish Contaminants) Use .........................................................14 3 Water Quality Conditions in the Watershed ....................................................................16 3.1 Headwaters Paint Creek (05060003 01) .....................................................................25 3.1.1 Town of Washington Court House-Paint Creek (05060003 01 03) ..................28 3.2 Sugar Creek (05060003 02) ........................................................................................30 3.2.1 Headwaters Sugar Creek (05060003 02 01) ...................................................32 3.3 Headwaters Rattlesnake Creek (05060003 03) ...........................................................33 3.3.1 Wilson Creek (05060003 03 01) ......................................................................35 3.4 Lees Creek-Rattlesnake Creek (05060003 04) ...........................................................36 3.5 Rocky Fork (05060003 05) ..........................................................................................39 3.5.1 Clear Creek (05060003 05 02) ........................................................................41 3.6 Indian Creek-Paint Creek (05060003 06) ....................................................................42 3.7 Buckskin Creek-Paint Creek (05060003 07) ...............................................................45 3.8 Headwaters North Fork Paint Creek (05060003 08) ....................................................48 3.9 Little Creek-North Fork Paint Creek (05060003 09) ....................................................50 3.10 Ralston Run-Paint Creek (05060003 10) ....................................................................53 3.11 Large River Assessment Unit - Paint Creek ................................................................56 4 Methods to Calculate Load Reductions ...........................................................................57 4.1 Loading Simulation Program in C++ (LSPC) ...............................................................69 4.1.1 Justification .....................................................................................................69 4.1.2 Sources of Data ..............................................................................................71 4.1.3 Target(s) .........................................................................................................73 4.1.4 Calibration and Validation ...............................................................................74 4.1.5 Allowance for Future Growth ...........................................................................77 4.1.6 Seasonality and Critical Conditions .................................................................78 4.1.7 Allocations to Regulated Municipal Separate Storm Sewer Systems (MS4s) and Confined Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) ............................79 4.2 Qualitative Habitat Evaluation Index (QHEI)................................................................81 4.2.1 Justification .....................................................................................................81 4.2.2 Sources of Data ..............................................................................................81 i Paint Creek Watershed TMDLs 4.2.3 Targets............................................................................................................82 4.2.4 Calibration and Validation ...............................................................................83 4.2.5 Allowance for Future Growth ...........................................................................84 4.2.6 Seasonality and Critical Conditions .................................................................84 4.3 Load Duration Curve Analysis .....................................................................................84 4.3.1 Justification .....................................................................................................87 4.3.2 Sources of Data ..............................................................................................88 4.3.3 Target(s) .........................................................................................................88 4.3.4 Calibration and Validation ...............................................................................88 4.3.5 Allowance for Future Growth ...........................................................................88 4.3.6 Seasonality and Critical Conditions .................................................................89 4.3.7 Allocations to Regulated Municipal Separate Storm Sewer Systems (MS4s) ............................................................................................................89 4.4 Margin of Safety ..........................................................................................................90 4.4.1 E. coli Margin of Safety ...................................................................................90 4.4.2 Total Phosphorus Margin of Safety .................................................................90 4.4.3 Habitat and Sediment Margin of Safety ...........................................................91 4.5 Summary of surrogate parameters used to develop TMDLs .......................................91 5 Load Reduction Results ...................................................................................................93 5.1 Paint Creek (headwaters to below East Fork) (05060003 01) .....................................93 5.1.1 E. coli TMDLs ..................................................................................................93 5.1.2 Total Phosphorus TMDLs ...............................................................................95 5.1.3 Habitat and Sediment TMDLs .........................................................................98 5.2 Sugar Creek (05060003 02) ...................................................................................... 104 5.2.1 E. coli TMDLs ................................................................................................ 104 5.2.2 Total Phosphorus TMDLs ............................................................................. 105 5.2.3 Habitat and Sediment TMDLs ....................................................................... 106 5.3 Rattlesnake Creek (headwaters to above Lees Creek) (05060003 03) ..................... 108 5.3.1 E. coli TMDLs ................................................................................................ 108 5.3.2 Habitat and Sediment TMDLs ....................................................................... 110 5.4 Rattlesnake Creek (above Lees Creek to Paint Cr.) (05060003 04) .......................... 115 5.4.1 E. coli TMDLs ................................................................................................ 115 5.4.2 Habitat and Sediment TMDLs ....................................................................... 116 5.5 Rocky Fork (05060003 05) ........................................................................................ 118 5.5.1 E. coli TMDLs ................................................................................................ 118 5.5.2 Habitat and Sediment TMDLs ....................................................................... 120 5.6 Paint Creek (below East Fork [except Sugar Creek] to above Rocky Fork (05060003