Bois de Sioux River Watershed Monitoring and Assessment Report November 2013 Authors The MPCA is reducing printing and mailing costs MPCA Bois de Sioux Watershed Report Team: by using the Internet to distribute reports and Dave Dollinger, Ben Lundeen, Kevin Stroom, information to wider audience. Visit our website Pam Anderson, Bruce Monson, Shawn Nelson, Kris for more information. Parson, Andrew Butzer, Andrew Streitz MPCA reports are printed on 100 percent post- consumer recycled content paper manufactured Contributors / acknowledgements without chlorine or chlorine derivatives. Citizen Stream Monitoring Program Volunteers Minnesota Department of Natural Resources Minnesota Department of Health Minnesota Department of Agriculture Red River Watershed Management Board Project dollars provided by the Clean Water Fund (from the Clean Water, Land and Legacy Amendment) Minnesota Pollution Control Agency 520 Lafayette Road North | Saint Paul, MN 55155-4194 | www.pca.state.mn.us | 651-296-6300 Toll free 800-657-3864 | TTY 651-282-5332 This report is available in alternative formats upon request, and online at www.pca.state.mn.us Document number: wq-ws3-09020101b List of acronyms AUID Assessment Unit Identification MDNR Minnesota Department of Natural Determination Resources CCSI Channel Condition and Stability Index MINLEAP Minnesota Lake Eutrophication Analysis Procedure CD County Ditch MPCA Minnesota Pollution Control Agency CI Confidence Interval MSHA Minnesota Stream Habitat Assessment CLMP Citizen Lake Monitoring Program MTS Meets the Standard? CR County Road N Nitrogen CSAH County State Aid Highway Nitrate-N Nitrate Plus Nitrite Nitrogen CSMP Citizen Stream Monitoring Program NA Not Assessed CWA Clean Water Act NHD National Hydrologic Dataset CWLA Clean Water Legacy Act NH3 Ammonia DOP Dissolved Orthophosphate NS Not Supporting E Eutrophic NT No Trend EQuIS Environmental Quality Information System OP Orthophosphate EX Exceeds Criteria (Bacteria) P Phosphorous EXP Exceeds Criteria, Potential Impairment PCB Poly Chlorinated Biphenyls EXS Exceeds Criteria, Potential Severe PWI Protected Waters Inventory Impairment RNR River Nutrient Region FS Full Support SWAG Surface Water Assessment Grant FWMC Flow Weighted Mean Concentration SWCD Soil and Water Conservation District H Hypereutrophic SWUD State Water Use Database HUC Hydrologic Unit Code TALU Tiered Aquatic Life Uses IBI Index of Biotic Integrity TKN Total Kjeldahl Nitrogen IF Insufficient Information TMDL Total Maximum Daily Load K Potassium TP Total Phosphorous LRVW Limited Resource Value Water TSS Total Suspended Solids M Mesotrophic USGS United States Geological Survey MCES Metropolitan Council Environmental WPLMN Water Pollutant Load Monitoring Services Network MDA Minnesota Department of Agriculture MDH Minnesota Department of Health Contents Executive summary ............................................................................................................................1 Introduction ......................................................................................................................................2 I. The watershed monitoring approach .........................................................................................3 II. Assessment methodology ..........................................................................................................7 III. Watershed overview ............................................................................................................... 10 IV. Watershed-wide data collection methodology ......................................................................... 18 V. Individual watershed results .................................................................................................... 26 Rabbit River Watershed Unit HUC 09020101110 .......................................................... 28 Doran Coulee Watershed Unit HUC 09020101120 .......................................................... 34 Steer Creek Watershed Unit HUC 09020101025 .......................................................... 39 C.D. # 52 Watershed Unit HUC 09020101030 ........................................................... 43 Lake Traverse Watershed Unit HUC 09020101040 .......................................................... 47 Mud Lake Watershed Unit HUC 09020101060 .......................................................... 49 J.D. #11 Watershed Unit HUC 09020101070 .......................................................... 51 Bois de Sioux River Watershed Unit HUC 09020101090 .......................................................... 53 VI. Watershed-wide results and discussion.................................................................................... 57 VII. Summaries and recommendations ........................................................................................... 71 Literature cited ................................................................................................................................73 Appendix 1 - Water chemistry definitions ...................................................................................... 75 Appendix 2 - Intensive watershed monitoring water chemistry stations in the Bois de Sioux Watershed ............................................................................................................... 76 Appendix 3.1 - AUID table of stream assessment results (by parameter and beneficial use) ............. 77 Appendix 3.2 - Assessment results for lakes in the Bois de Sioux Watershed .................................... 80 Appendix 4.1 - Minnesota statewide IBI thresholds and confidence limits ....................................... 82 Appendix 4.2 - Biological monitoring results – fish IBI (assessable reaches) ..................................... 83 Appendix 4.3 - Biological monitoring results-macroinvertebrate IBI (assessable reaches) ................ 83 Appendix 5.1 - Good/fair/poor thresholds for biological stations on non-assessed channelized AUIDs ........................................................................................................................ 84 Appendix 5.2 - Channelized stream reach and AUID IBI scores-FISH (non-assessed) ......................... 85 Appendix 5.3 - Channelized stream reach and AUID IBI scores-macroinverbrates (non-assessed) ..... 85 Appendix 6.1 - Minnesota’s ecoregion-based lake eutrophication standards ................................... 86 Appendix 6.2 - MINLEAP model estimates of phosphorus loads for lakes in the Boise de Sioux River Watershed ..................................................................................................... 86 List of Figures Figure 1. Major watersheds within Minnesota (8-Digit HUC) ...............................................................3 Figure 2. Monitoring locations of local groups, citizens and the MPCA lake monitoring staff in the Bois de Sioux River Watershed ...........................................................................................................4 Figure 3. Example of the intensive watershed monitoring design ........................................................5 Figure 4. Intensive watershed monitoring sites for streams in the Bois de Sioux River Watershed ........6 Figure 5. Flowchart of aquatic life use assessment process ..................................................................9 Figure 6. The Bois de Sioux River Watershed within the Lake Agassiz Plain ecoregion of western Minnesota .......................................................................................................................................11 Figure 7. Land use in the Bois de Sioux River Watershed ................................................................... 12 Figure 8. State-wide precipitation levels during the 2011-2012 water year ........................................ 14 Figure 9. Precipitation trends in West Central Minnesota (1990-2010) .............................................. 15 Figure 10. Precipitation trends in west central Minnesota (1895-2015) .............................................. 15 Figure 11. Topography of the Bois de Sioux River Watershed ............................................................ 16 Figure 12. Locations of permitted groundwater withdrawals in the Bois de Sioux River Watershed .... 17 Figure 13. Total annual groundwater and surface water withdrawals in the Bois de Sioux River Watershed (1990-2010) .................................................................................................................... 18 Figure 14. Hydrograph and annual runoff for the Bois de Sioux River near Doran (2007-2009) ............ 19 Figure 15. Locations of area MDNR observation wells ....................................................................... 22 Figure 16. Hydrograph from Observation Well 78000, in Traverse County .......................................... 23 Figure 17. Locations of wells in the MPCA Ambient Groundwater Monitoring Program ...................... 24 Figure 18. Summary of naturally occurring arsenic values from groundwater samples (Traverse-Grant Regional Hydrogeologic Assessment, MDNR) ........................................................... 25 Figure 19. Water elevation for Lake Traverse 2002 - 2013 .................................................................. 25 Figure 20. Currently listed impaired waters by parameter and land use characteristics in the Rabbit River subwatershed .............................................................................................................