Halfway, Silver, and Shantee Creeks Analysis October 24, 2014 Prepared for U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region 5 Ohio Environmental Protection Agency Prepared by Tetra Tech, Inc. 1468 West Ninth Street, Suite 620 Cleveland, OH 44113 Halfway, Silver, and Shantee Creeks Analysis Summary Report Contents Tables ........................................................................................................................................................... iii Figures ......................................................................................................................................................... iv Abbreviations and Acronyms ....................................................................................................................... v Units of Measure ........................................................................................................................................... v Acknowledgements ...................................................................................................................................... vi Executive Summary .................................................................................................................................... vii 1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................................... 1 2 Watershed Characterization .................................................................................................................. 3 2.1 Project Setting ............................................................................................................................... 3 2.2 Hydrography ................................................................................................................................. 5 2.3 Land Use and Land Cover ............................................................................................................ 8 2.4 Geology and Soils ....................................................................................................................... 10 2.5 Climate ........................................................................................................................................ 11 2.6 Hydrology ................................................................................................................................... 12 3 Water Quality Assessment .................................................................................................................. 14 3.1 Biological Communities ............................................................................................................. 14 3.2 Habitat ......................................................................................................................................... 15 3.3 Groundwater Chemistry .............................................................................................................. 16 3.4 Fish Tissue Chemistry ................................................................................................................. 16 3.5 Water Column Chemistry ........................................................................................................... 16 3.6 Sediment Chemistry .................................................................................................................... 21 3.7 Summary ..................................................................................................................................... 25 4 Source Assessment .............................................................................................................................. 26 4.1 Available Datasets ...................................................................................................................... 26 4.2 Subwatershed Delineation........................................................................................................... 28 4.3 Pollutants of Concern .................................................................................................................. 31 4.4 Sources of Pollution .................................................................................................................... 33 4.5 Fate and Transport ...................................................................................................................... 35 5 Critical Areas ...................................................................................................................................... 37 5.1 Tifft Ditch (Lower) ..................................................................................................................... 40 5.2 Shantee Creek (West Laskey Road) ............................................................................................ 46 5.3 Shantee Creek (Telegraph Road) ................................................................................................ 53 5.4 Shantee Creek (Stickney Avenue) .............................................................................................. 60 5.5 Silver Creek (General Motors) .................................................................................................... 66 5.6 Ketcham Ditch (Lower): ............................................................................................................. 72 5.7 Jamieson Ditch (Middle) ............................................................................................................. 77 5.8 Silver Creek (North Towne Square) ........................................................................................... 82 5.9 Silver Creek (East Alexis Road) ................................................................................................. 90 5.10 Silver Creek Cutoff ..................................................................................................................... 95 5.11 Halfway Creek (North Towne Square) ..................................................................................... 100 6 Assumptions and Uncertainties ......................................................................................................... 104 6.1 Identification of Pollutants of Concern ..................................................................................... 104 6.2 Identification of Potential Sources of Pollution ........................................................................ 104 6.3 Evaluation of the Fate and Transport of Pollutants of Concern ................................................ 105 6.4 Spatial Analyses ........................................................................................................................ 105 7 Recommendations ............................................................................................................................. 108 7.1 Water Quality Assessment ........................................................................................................ 108 7.2 Data Management ..................................................................................................................... 114 7.3 Compilation and Summary of Recommendations by Agency .................................................. 116 ii Halfway, Silver, and Shantee Creeks Analysis Summary Report 8 References ......................................................................................................................................... 118 Appendix A. Data Inventory Appendix B. Watershed Characterization Appendix C. Water Columns Metals Results Appendix D. Subwatersheds Appendix E. Recommendations for Future Sampling Efforts Tables Table 1. WAUs from the draft 2014 Integrated Report associated with the HSSCA project area ............... 6 Table 2. Water column chemistry samples evaluated for metals ................................................................ 18 Table 3. Water column chemistry samples evaluated for organic compounds ........................................... 20 Table 4. Water column organic compounds results for Shantee Creek ...................................................... 20 Table 5. Water column organic compounds results for Silver Creek ......................................................... 20 Table 6. Sediment chemistry samples ......................................................................................................... 21 Table 7. Sediment metals results (October 22, 1992) ................................................................................. 23 Table 8. Sediment metals, PAHs, and PCBs results (August 30, 2011) ..................................................... 24 Table 9. Summary of the delineated subwatersheds in the HSSCA project area ........................................ 29 Table 10. Metals, PAHs, and PCB detected in environmental samples collected by Ohio EPA ................ 32 Table 11. Summary of NPDES-permitted facilities in the HSSCA project area ........................................ 33 Table 12. Summary of regulated facilities in the HSSCA project area....................................................... 34 Table 13. Summary of spill reports in the HSSCA project area ................................................................. 34 Table 14. Qualitative rankings of the importance of spills ......................................................................... 38 Table 15. Generalized unit costs for future recommended sampling .........................................................