Biological and Water Quality Study of the Lower Muskingum River Tributaries, 2012-2014 (Rokeby Lock to the Ohio River) Morgan, Muskingum, Noble, and Washington Counties OHIO EPA Technical Report EAS/2015-03-01 Division of Surface Water Ecological Assessment Section December 08, 2016 EAS/2015-03-01 Lower Muskingum River Tributaries 2012-2014 December 08, 2016 Biological and Water Quality Study of the Lower Muskingum River Tributaries (Rokeby Lock to the Ohio River) Morgan, Muskingum, Noble, and Washington Counties December 08, 2016 Ohio EPA Report DSW/EAS 2015-03-01 Prepared by State of Ohio Environmental Protection Agency Ecological Assessment Section 4675 Homer Ohio Lane Groveport, Ohio 43125 Division of Surface Water Lazarus Government Center 50 West Town Street, Suite 700 P.O. Box 1049 Columbus, Ohio 43216-1049 Southeast District Office 2195 Front Street Logan, Ohio 43138 John R. Kasich, Governor Craig W. Butler, Director State of Ohio Ohio Environmental Protection Agency 0 EAS/2015-03-01 Lower Muskingum River Tributaries 2012-2014 December 08, 2016 Table of Contents Table of Figures ............................................................................................................................................. 2 Table of Tables .............................................................................................................................................. 6 Executive Summary ....................................................................................................................................... 9 Recommendations ...................................................................................................................................... 21 Introduction ................................................................................................................................................ 26 Study Area Description ............................................................................................................................... 32 Location and Scope ................................................................................................................................. 32 Beneficial Uses ........................................................................................................................................ 32 Ecoregions, Geology, and Soils ............................................................................................................... 32 Land Cover and Land Use ........................................................................................................................ 34 Land Cover .......................................................................................................................................... 34 Land Use .............................................................................................................................................. 35 Ground Water Supply ......................................................................................................................... 35 Watershed Groups .............................................................................................................................. 36 Results ......................................................................................................................................................... 36 Recreation Use ........................................................................................................................................ 36 Sediment ................................................................................................................................................. 40 Point Source and Non-Point Source Impacts .......................................................................................... 43 Electric Generating Stations ................................................................................................................ 45 Landfills ............................................................................................................................................... 45 Waste Water Treatment ..................................................................................................................... 46 General NPDES Permits ....................................................................................................................... 47 Water Chemistry ..................................................................................................................................... 48 Grab Samples ...................................................................................................................................... 48 Water Quality Sonde Exceedance Summary ...................................................................................... 52 Trophic Evaluation .............................................................................................................................. 58 Stream Physical Habitat .......................................................................................................................... 64 1 EAS/2015-03-01 Lower Muskingum River Tributaries 2012-2014 December 08, 2016 Meigs Creek Watershed ...................................................................................................................... 64 Olive Green Creek Watershed ............................................................................................................ 64 West Branch Wolf Creek Watershed .................................................................................................. 65 South Branch Wolf Creek Watershed ................................................................................................. 66 Direct Muskingum River Tributaries ................................................................................................... 67 Fish Community ...................................................................................................................................... 71 Meigs Creek Watershed ...................................................................................................................... 71 Olive Green Creek Watershed ............................................................................................................ 73 West Branch Wolf Creek Watershed .................................................................................................. 74 South Branch Wolf Creek Watershed ................................................................................................. 75 Direct Muskingum River Tributaries ................................................................................................... 76 Cold-Water Streams ............................................................................................................................ 77 Macroinvertebrate Community .............................................................................................................. 83 Meigs Creek Watershed ...................................................................................................................... 83 Olive Green Creek Watershed .......................................................................................................... 101 Wolf Creek Watershed ...................................................................................................................... 107 Acknowledgments ..................................................................................................................................... 128 Works Cited ............................................................................................................................................... 129 Table of Figures Figure 1. 84% of the sites sampled in the lower Muskingum River tributaries study area met their designated aquatic life use biocriteria. ......................................................................................................... 9 Figure 2. QHEI scores were generally good to excellent in the lower Muskingum River Tributaries survey area, 2012-2014. ......................................................................................................................................... 10 Figure 3. Sampling locations for the 2012-2014 lower Muskingum River tributaries survey area. Site numbers are identified in Table 3. .............................................................................................................. 27 Figure 4. The Monongahela Transition Zone and Permian Hills subecoregions constituted the majority of the lower Muskingum River tributaries survey area. ................................................................................. 33 Figure 5. The lower Muskingum River tributaries survey area was very rural, with 60.3 % being forested and 21.6% crops or pasture. ....................................................................................................................... 34 2 EAS/2015-03-01 Lower Muskingum River Tributaries 2012-2014 December 08, 2016 Figure 6. Active NPDES permitted facilities and other industrial activities in the lower Muskingum River tributaries watershed. Horizontal arrows indicate the direction and length of the directional well boring. Surface-mined areas are shaded tan. ......................................................................................................... 44 Figure 7. Graph of 2012 and 2013 average daily stream flow relative to the daily median