Total Maximum Daily Loads for the Hughes River Watershed, West Virginia USEPA Approved Report September 2018 On the cover: Photos provided by WVDEP Division of Water and Waste Management Hughes River Watershed: TMDL Report CONTENTS Acronyms, Abbreviations, and Definitions ................................................................................ iv Executive Summary .................................................................................................................... vii 1.0 Report Format ....................................................................................................................1 2.0 Introduction ........................................................................................................................1 2.1 Total Maximum Daily Loads ...................................................................................1 2.2 Water Quality Standards ..........................................................................................4 3.0 Watershed Description and Data Inventory....................................................................5 3.1 Watershed Description .............................................................................................5 3.2 Data Inventory .........................................................................................................7 3.3 Impaired Waterbodies ..............................................................................................9 4.0 Biological Impairment and Stressor Identification ......................................................16 4.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................17 4.2 Data Review ...........................................................................................................17 4.3 Candidate Causes/Pathways...................................................................................17 4.4 Stressor Identification Results ...............................................................................20 5.0 Metals Source Assessment ...............................................................................................23 5.1 Metals Point Sources..............................................................................................23 5.1.1 Non-mining Point Sources .........................................................................25 5.1.2 Construction Stormwater Permits ..............................................................25 5.2 Metals Nonpoint Sources .......................................................................................28 5.2.1 Sediment Sources .......................................................................................29 6.0 Fecal Coliform Source Assessment.................................................................................32 6.1 Fecal Coliform Point Sources ................................................................................32 6.1.1 Individual NPDES Permits ........................................................................32 6.1.2 General Sewage Permits ............................................................................32 6.2 Fecal Coliform Nonpoint Sources .........................................................................34 6.2.1 On-site Treatment Systems ........................................................................34 6.2.2 Urban/Residential Runoff ..........................................................................36 6.2.3 Agriculture .................................................................................................36 6.2.4 Natural Background (Wildlife) ..................................................................36 7.0 Modeling Process .............................................................................................................37 i Hughes River Watershed: TMDL Report 7.1 Model Selection .....................................................................................................37 7.2 Model Setup ...........................................................................................................38 7.2.1 General MDAS Configuration ...................................................................38 7.2.2 Iron and Sediment Configuration...............................................................39 7.2.3 Fecal Coliform Configuration ....................................................................40 7.3 Hydrology Calibration ...........................................................................................41 7.4 Water Quality Calibration ......................................................................................41 7.5 Modeling Technique for Biological Impacts with Sedimentation Stressors .........42 7.6 Allocation Strategy ................................................................................................43 7.6.1 TMDL Endpoints .......................................................................................43 7.6.2 Baseline Conditions and Source Loading Alternatives .............................44 7.7 TMDLs and Source Allocations ............................................................................47 7.7.1 Total Iron TMDLs......................................................................................47 7.7.2 Fecal Coliform Bacteria TMDLs ...............................................................49 7.7.3 Seasonal Variation .....................................................................................49 7.7.4 Critical Conditions .....................................................................................50 7.7.5 TMDL Presentation ...................................................................................50 8.0 TMDL Results ..................................................................................................................51 9.0 Future Growth .................................................................................................................62 9.1 Iron .........................................................................................................................62 9.2 Fecal Coliform Bacteria .........................................................................................63 10.0 Public Participation .........................................................................................................63 10.1 Public Meetings .....................................................................................................63 10.2 Public Notice and Public Comment Period ...........................................................64 10.3 Response Summary ................................................................................................64 11.0 Reasonable Assurance .....................................................................................................65 11.1 NPDES Permitting .................................................................................................65 11.2 Watershed Management Framework Process ........................................................66 11.3 Public Sewer Projects ............................................................................................67 12.0 Monitoring Plan ...............................................................................................................67 12.1 NPDES Compliance...............................................................................................67 12.2 Nonpoint Source Project Monitoring .....................................................................67 12.3 TMDL Effectiveness Monitoring ..........................................................................67 13.0 References .........................................................................................................................68 ii Hughes River Watershed: TMDL Report TABLES Table 2-1. Applicable West Virginia water quality criteria .......................................................... 5 Table 3-1. Modified landuse for the Hughes TMDL watersheds ................................................. 7 Table 3-2. Datasets used in TMDL development ......................................................................... 8 Table 3-3. Waterbodies and impairments for which TMDLs have been developed................... 11 Table 4-1. Biological impacts resolved by implementation of pollutant-specific TMDLs ........ 21 Table 7-1. TMDL endpoints........................................................................................................ 44 Table 8-1. Iron TMDLs ............................................................................................................... 51 Table 8-2. Fecal Coliform Bacteria TMDLs ............................................................................... 58 FIGURES Figure I-1. Examples of a watershed, TMDL watershed, and subwatershed ............................... vi Figure 2-1. Hydrologic groupings of West Virginia’s watersheds ................................................ 3 Figure 3-1. Location of the Hughes River Watershed TMDL Project Area in West Virginia ...... 6 Figure 3-2. Hughes TMDL Watersheds....................................................................................... 10 Figure 4-1. Conceptual model of candidate causes and potential biological effects ................... 19 Figure 5-1. Point sources in the Hughes River Watershed .......................................................... 24 Figure 5-2. Construction