Kalamazoo River Watershed Management Plan Prepared by the Kalamazoo River Watershed Council March 2011 (updated August 2015) This Nonpoint Source Pollution Control project has been funded in part through the Michigan Nonpoint Source Program by the United States Environmental Protection Agency under assistance agreement #2006-0148 to the Kalamazoo River Watershed Council for the Kalamazoo River Watershed Management Plan. The contents of the document do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the EPA, nor does the mention of trade names or commercial products constitute endorsement or recommendation for use. Recommended Citation: Kalamazoo River Watershed Council. 2011. Kalamazoo River Watershed Management Plan. Prepared for the Michigan Nonpoint Source Program (Michigan Department of Environmental Quality and the United States Environmental Protection Agency). ii Acknowledgments This Watershed Management Plan is the culmination of several years of work on the part of the Kalamazoo River Watershed Council and particularly our Coordinator and the lead author of this report, Jeffrey A. Spoelstra. Jeff attended innumerable meetings in the community, studied dozens of reports, and assimilated and compiled the information presented here. The Plan was greatly enhanced by the technical and scientific support of Kieser & Associates, LLC, who contributed with spatial data analysis, map production, and modeling. We would also like to acknowledge our many partners in the quest to improve watershed protection and management in the Kalamazoo River watershed. Funding to prepare this Plan was provided primarily through a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Section 319 grant administered by the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ; also known as MDNRE during the report preparation). Janelle Hohm and Julia Kirkwood of the MDEQ were especially helpful in providing guidance and support. Our work on non-point source pollution has been conducted in close collaboration with the Kalamazoo River/Lake Allegan Total Maximum Daily Load implementation committee, and we received input from many other governmental and non-governmental entities. Stephen K. Hamilton, PhD President Kalamazoo River Watershed Council iii Table of Contents 1. Introduction _________________________________________________________ 1 1.1. The Challenge of Watershed Management ________________________________ 4 1.2. The Purpose of this Plan _______________________________________________ 5 1.3. Guiding Principles ____________________________________________________ 6 1.4. Structure and Use of this Plan __________________________________________ 6 2. Watershed Description ______________________________________________ 11 2.1. Geology and Groundwater ____________________________________________ 11 2.2. Hydrology: Ground and Surface Waters ________________________________ 16 2.3. Land Use and Cover _________________________________________________ 20 2.4. The Kalamazoo River Mainstem _______________________________________ 26 2.5. Dams and Reservoirs ________________________________________________ 27 3. Community Profile _________________________________________________ 30 3.1. Synopsis of Regional History __________________________________________ 30 3.2. Governmental and Political Structure __________________________________ 32 3.3. Urban and Suburban Centers and Industrial Activity _____________________ 37 3.4. Agriculture _________________________________________________________ 38 3.5. Demographics, Future Growth and Development _________________________ 38 3.6. Outdoor Recreation _________________________________________________ 39 4. Natural Features and their Protection _________________________________ 41 4.1. Terrestrial Ecosystems _______________________________________________ 48 4.2. Streams and Rivers __________________________________________________ 49 4.3. Lakes _____________________________________________________________ 51 4.4. Wetlands and Floodplains ____________________________________________ 52 4.5. Rare Features and Species ____________________________________________ 58 4.6. Invasive Species (aquatic and wetland) __________________________________ 59 5. The Legacy of Contaminated Sediments ________________________________ 60 5.1. PCBs in the River System and Food Webs _______________________________ 60 5.2. Superfund _________________________________________________________ 62 5.3. Area of Concern ____________________________________________________ 65 5.4. Overlapping Superfund and AOC Issues ________________________________ 67 5.5. Other Trace Contaminants ___________________________________________ 67 6. Water Resource Management ________________________________________ 69 iv 6.1. Watershed Management: Setting Boundaries ____________________________ 69 6.2. Land Use and Water Quality __________________________________________ 69 6.3. Regulatory Authority for Water Resources ______________________________ 70 6.4. Roads and Water Quality _____________________________________________ 76 6.5. Water Bodies (rivers, drains, streams, lakes) _____________________________ 78 6.6. Local Water Quality Protection Policies _________________________________ 80 6.7. Private Land Management ____________________________________________ 82 7. Water Quality Summary ____________________________________________ 86 7.1. Designated and Desired Uses __________________________________________ 86 7.2. Water Quality: General Considerations _________________________________ 97 7.3. Groundwater Quantity and Quality ____________________________________ 99 7.4. Loading to Lake Michigan ___________________________________________ 102 8. Development of the Kalamazoo River Watershed Management Plan ________ 103 8.1. Public Input and Stakeholder Concerns ________________________________ 103 8.2. Water Quality Evaluation: Linking Pollutant Loads to Water Quality ______ 104 9. Prioritization - Areas, Pollutants, Sources _____________________________ 120 9.1. Urban/Suburban Mitigation Areas ____________________________________ 127 9.2. Rural/Agricultural Mitigation Areas __________________________________ 128 9.3. Ecosystem Restoration Areas to Ameliorate Non-Point Source Pollution _____ 130 9.4. High-Quality Aquatic Ecosystems Preservation Areas ____________________ 131 10. Goals and Objectives ____________________________________________ 133 10.1. Goals for Designated Uses ___________________________________________ 133 10.2. Goals for Desired Uses ______________________________________________ 138 11. Implementation Strategies ________________________________________ 142 11.1. Action Plan by Priority Area _________________________________________ 142 11.2. Information and Education __________________________________________ 153 12. Moving from Plan to Action and Results ____________________________ 162 12.1. Knowledge and Awareness ___________________________________________ 162 12.2. Documenting Implementation ________________________________________ 162 12.3. Monitoring Water Quality ___________________________________________ 162 12.4. Estimating Pollutant Load Reductions _________________________________ 169 12.5. Evaluating the Watershed Management Plan ___________________________ 171 13. References cited ___________________________________________________ 172 v Attachments: Attachment 1. Partnership Agreement Attachment 2. Crosswalk Table of Subwatersheds as Defined by Project, Agency, and Management Unit Attachment 3. Build-Out Analysis and Urban Cost Scenarios Attachment 4. Road Stream Crossing Data for the Kalamazoo River Watershed Streambank Erosion Sites Attachment 5. Common Pollutants, Sources and Water Quality Standards Attachment 6. Individual Waterbody Assessment Attachment 7. Buffer Analysis Memo Attachment 8. Kalamazoo River BMP Screening Tool Attachment 9. BMP Descriptions, Costs, and Load Reductions per Area Treated Attachment 10. Public Comment Attachment 11. Impaired Waterbodies Attachment 12. Watershed and TMDL Phosphorus Load Reduction Goal Calculations Attachment 13. Kalamazoo River Watershed Land Conservation Plan and Factsheet Attachment 14. Landscape Level Wetlands Functional Assessment Summary vi Tables Table 1. Kalamazoo River subwatershed plans. ______________________________________________ 9 Table 2 . Soils within the Kalamazoo River Watershed (from the STATSGO data base). ______________ 13 Table 3. Land use breakdown for the entire Kalamazoo River Watershed based on the data in Figure 9. _ 22 Table 4. Land use breakdown for each major watershed management planning area (see Table 1) in the Kalamazoo River Watershed (percentage of subwatershed area). _______________________________ 23 Table 5. Land use breakdown for areas without a WMP in the Kalamazoo River Watershed (percentage of subwatershed area) . __________________________________________________________________ 24 Table 6. Political boundaries within the Kalamazoo River Watershed. ___________________________ 32 Table 7. Major streams in the Kalamazoo River Watershed. ___________________________________ 50 Table 8. Major lakes in the Kalamazoo River Watershed. _____________________________________ 52 Table 9. Detailed functional comparisons of pre-settlement and 2005 (current) wetland acreage. ______ 54 Table 10. Number, and average size, of wetlands area per restoration rank. _______________________ 57 Table 11. Private land protection options. ________________________________________________ 83 Table 12. Private land management programs.** ___________________________________________