FINAL Total Maximum Daily Loads of Fecal Bacteria for the Non-Tidal Jones Falls Basin in Baltimore City and Baltimore County, Maryland FINAL DEPARTMENT OF THE ENVIRONMENT Montgomery Business Park Center 1800 Washington Boulevard, Suite 540 Baltimore MD 21230-1718 Submitted to: Water Protection Division U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region III 1650 Arch Street Philadelphia, PA 19103-2029 September 2006 EPA Submittal Date: September 22, 2006 EPA Approval Date: February 12, 2008 Jones Falls TMDL Fecal Bacteria Document version: September 19, 2006 FINAL Table of Contents List of Figures................................................................................................................................. i List of Tables ................................................................................................................................. ii List of Abbreviations ................................................................................................................... iv EXECUTIVE SUMMARY .......................................................................................................... v 1.0 INTRODUCTION............................................................................................................. 1 2.0 SETTING AND WATER QUALITY DESCRIPTION................................................. 3 2.1 General Setting................................................................................................................ 3 2.2 Water Quality Characterization .................................................................................... 11 2.3 Water Quality Impairment ............................................................................................ 14 2.4 Source Assessment........................................................................................................ 19 3.0 TARGETED WATER QUALITY GOAL.................................................................... 31 4.0 TOTAL MAXIMUM DAILY LOADS AND SOURCE ALLOCATION.................. 31 4.1 Overview....................................................................................................................... 31 4.2 Analysis Framework ..................................................................................................... 32 4.3 Estimating Baseline Loads............................................................................................ 33 4.4 Critical Condition and Seasonality ............................................................................... 39 4.5 Margin of Safety ........................................................................................................... 42 4.6 TMDL Loading Caps.................................................................................................... 42 4.7 Scenario Descriptions ................................................................................................... 43 4.8 TMDL Allocation......................................................................................................... 48 4.9 Summary....................................................................................................................... 50 5.0 ASSURANCE OF IMPLEMENTATION .................................................................... 51 REFERENCES............................................................................................................................ 53 Appendix A – Table of Bacteria Concentration Raw Data per Sampling Date with Corresponding Daily Flow Frequency..................................................................................... A1 Appendix B - Flow Duration Curve Analysis to Define Strata ................................................B1 Appendix C - Identifying Sources of Fecal Pollution in Nontidal Waters in Maryland Watersheds................................................................................................................................C1 Jones Falls TMDL Fecal Bacteria Document version: September 19, 2006 FINAL List of Figures Figure 2.1.1: Location Map of the Jones Falls Watershed ............................................................ 5 Figure 2.1.2: General Soil Series in the Jones Falls Watershed .................................................... 6 Figure 2.1.3: Land Use of the Jones Falls Watershed.................................................................... 9 Figure 2.1.4: Population Density in Jones Falls Watershed ........................................................ 10 Figure 2.2.1: Monitoring Stations in the Jones Falls Watershed ................................................. 13 Figure 2.3.1: Conceptual Diagram of Flow Duration Zones ....................................................... 16 Figure 2.4.1: Sanitary Sewer Service Area and Septics in the Jones Falls Watershed................ 21 Figure 2.4.2: Location of Sanitary Sewer Overflows in the Jones Falls Watershed ................... 23 Figure 2.4.3: Sanitary and Combined Sewer Overflows Structures in the Jones Falls Watershed ............................................................................................................................................... 25 Figure 2.4.4: NPDES WWTPs with Permits Regulating the Discharge of Fecal Bacteria in the Jones Falls Watershed........................................................................................................... 27 Figure 4.2.1: Diagram of Non-tidal Bacteria TMDL Analysis Framework ................................ 33 Figure 4.3.1: Monitoring Stations and Subwatersheds in the Jones Falls Watershed ................. 37 Figure A-1: E. coli Concentration vs. Time for Jones Falls Monitoring Station JON0039 ....... A5 Figure A-2: E. coli Concentration vs. Time for Jones Falls Monitoring Station JON0082 ....... A6 Figure A-3: E. coli Concentration vs. Time for Jones Falls Monitoring Station JON0184 ....... A6 Figure A-4: E. coli Concentration vs. Time for Jones Falls Monitoring Station SRU0005....... A7 Figure A-5: E. coli Concentration vs. Time for Jones Falls Monitoring Station UQQ0005 ...... A7 Figure B-1: Jones Falls Flow Duration Curves............................................................................B2 Figure B-2: E. coli Concentration vs. Flow Duration for Jones Falls Monitoring Station JON0039 (Average Annual Condition) ................................................................................B5 Figure B-3: E. coli Concentration vs. Flow Duration for Jones Falls Monitoring Station JON0082 (Average Annual Condition) ................................................................................B5 Figure B-4: E. coli Concentration vs. Flow Duration for Jones Falls Monitoring Station JON0184 (Average Annual Condition) ................................................................................B6 Figure B-5: E. coli Concentration vs. Flow Duration for Jones Falls Monitoring Station SRU0005 (Average Annual Condition)................................................................................B6 Figure B-6: E. coli Concentration vs. Flow Duration for Jones Falls Monitoring Station UQQ0005 (Average Annual Condition)...............................................................................B7 Figure C-1: Jones Falls. Classification Model: Percent Correct versus Percent Unknown.......C8 Jones Falls TMDL Fecal Bacteria Document version: September 19, 2006 i FINAL List of Tables Table 2.1.1: Land Use Percentage Distribution for Jones Falls Watershed................................... 7 Table 2.1.2: Number of Dwellings Per Acre ................................................................................. 8 Table 2.1.3: Total Population Per Subwatershed in Jones Falls Watershed.................................. 8 Table 2.2.1: Historical Monitoring Data in the Jones Falls Watershed....................................... 12 Table 2.2.2: Locations of DNR (CORE) Monitoring Station in the Jones Falls Watershed ....... 12 Table 2.2.3: Locations of MDE Monitoring Stations in the Jones Falls Watershed ................... 12 Table 2.2.4: Locations of USGS Gauging Stations in Jones Falls Watershed ............................ 12 Table 2.3.1: Bacteria Criteria Values from Table 1 COMAR 26.08.02.03-3 Water Quality Criteria Specific to Designated Uses. ................................................................................... 14 Table 2.3.2: Weighting factors for Average Hydrology Year Used for Estimation of Geometric Means in the Jones Falls Watershed (Average Hydrology Year)......................................... 16 Table 2.3.3: Jones Falls Annual Steady-state Geometric Mean by Stratum per Subwatersheds. 18 Table 2.3.4: Jones Falls Seasonal (May 1st-September 30th) Period Steady-state Geometric Mean by Stratum per Subwatersheds.................................................................................... 19 Table 2.4.1: Septic Systems and Households per Subwatershed in Jones Falls Watershed........ 20 Table 2.4.2: Sanitary and Combined Sewer Overflow Structures in the Jones Falls Watershed 24 Table 2.4.3: NPDES municipal WWTPs with permits regulating the discharge of fecal bacteria directly in the Jones Falls Watershed (02-13-09-04)............................................................ 26 Table 2.4.4: Distribution of Fecal Bacteria Source Loads in the Jones Falls Watershed for the Average Annual Period......................................................................................................... 29 Table 2.4.5: Distribution of Fecal Bacteria Source