Elk Watershed TMDLs

West Virginia Department of

Environmental Protection

Draft TMDL Public Meetings

September 27, 2011

Elkview Middle School

TMDL/ water quality standards recap

Overview of this TMDL effort

Explanation/demonstration of electronic

documents, spreadsheets, tools

Questions and Answers

Agenda

What’s a TMDL?

“Total Maximum Daily Load”How much pollutant a stream can receive and

remain

healthy

A Pollution Budget – prescribes reduction of pollutants (where needed) that result in the restoration of an impaired stream

TMDL development is required by the Clean Water Act for all streams impaired by a pollutant

What’s an Impaired Stream?

Stream that doesn’t meet water quality standards

WV Water Quality Standards are codified in 47CSR2

Standards include

“Designated Uses” for

WV waters and the criteria

to protect those uses

Water Quality Criteria can

be numeric or narrative

Criteria of Concern

Fecal ColiformWater Contact Recreation; Public Water Supply200 counts/100ml as a monthly geometric meanno more than 10% of samples in a month exceed

400 counts/100ml

Total IronAquatic Life/Public Water SupplyNot to exceed 1.5 mg/l as a 4 day average

concentration more than once in a three year periodNot to exceed 0.5 mg/l (troutwater) as a 4 day

average concentration more than once in a three year period

Criteria of ConcernDissolved Aluminum

Aquatic life

Not to exceed 750 ug/l as a 4 day average concentration more than once in a three year period

Not to exceed 750 ug/l as a 1 hour average concentration more than once in a three year period

Not to exceed 87 ug/l (troutwater)as a 4 day average concentration more than once in a three year period

pH

All uses

No values below 6.0 nor above 9.0

Criteria of Concern

Total Selenium

Aquatic Life, Public Water Supply

Not to exceed 5 ug/l as a 4 day average more than once in a three year period

Not to exceed 20 ug/l as a 1 hour average more than once in a three year period

Not to exceed 50 ug/l (Public Drinking Water)

Criteria of ConcernBiological ImpairmentConditions Not Allowable in State Waters(47 CSR 2-3.2i) “.....no significant adverse impact to the chemical, physical, hydrologic or biological components of aquatic ecosystems shall be allowed.”Benthic macroinvertebrate assessmentWest Virginia Stream Condition Index (WVSCI)

TMDL = WLA + LA + MOS

= “sum of”

WLA = “wasteload allocations”

LA = “load allocations”

MOS = “margin of safety”

WLAs - pollutant loads for “point sources”

Discharge from distinct point

Need NPDES permit

LAs - pollutant loads for “nonpoint sources” and background

Precipitation and runoff

No permit required

Project Timeline:Proposed streams advertised for public comment

April 2007

Initial Public Meetings (TMDL Intro)

May 2007

Watershed Monitoring and Source Tracking

July 2007 - June 2008

Allocation Philosophy Meeting

October 2010

Draft TMDL Public Meeting - Today

Impaired Waters

214 named streams – See Table 3-3 on page 10 of Main Report for a complete list of streams and impairments

ModelingMDAS (Mining Data Analysis System)Fecal Coliform, total Iron, pH, dis. Aluminum Continuous, dynamic model with hourly time stepSimulates low, medium and high flowsCan handle point and nonpoint sources (representation and allocation)Recognizes exposure duration and exceedence frequency components of criteriaMetals speciation component allows evaluation of dissolved aluminum and pHSelenium process different

Modeling

From Sutton Dam downstream to mouth

Modeling

37 TMDL watersheds

440 subwatersheds

Baseline Condition

Design precipitation period

Hourly precipitation data for a six-year period

Design period includes wet and dry years

Applied to present day land uses

Permitted discharges equal to permit limits

TMDL ConditionExisting pollutant sources

reduced such that TMDL endpoints are achieved in each modeled subwatershed recognizing

Criteria value, duration & exceedence frequency

Margin of safety

Required component of TMDLs

Explicit 5% used in most TMDLs

TMDL endpoints for numeric criteria

are 95% of criterion value (example

1.425 mg/ml for 1.5 mg/ml criterion)

Margin of Safety

Baseline/TMDL Example

0.5

0.75

1

1.25

1.5

1.75

2

2.25

0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350

Simulation Period(Days)

Iron

, Tot

al (m

g/L)

Water Quality Criteria TMDL Target (WQ Criteria & 5%MOS)

Baseline Condition TMDL Condition

Seleinum TMDL Process

Used subwatershed delineation and source info from Iron TMDL

Sources related to mining activities

Low flow critical situation

Mass balance evaluation

Implicit margin of safety

Pollutant Sources (Iron)

Abandoned Mine Lands

Streambank Erosion

Active mining permits/Bond Forfeiture

Upland Sediment Sources

Harvested Forest

Oil and Gas

Agriculture

Urban Residential

Iron Reduction Strategy

AML sources

Surface runoff reduced to values equal to undisturbed forest

Seeps reduced to water quality criteria

Streambank Erosion reduced to reference stream loadings

Sediment Sources reduced to iron loadings equivalent to 100 mg/l TSS

Iron Reduction Strategy continued

In subs influenced by mining, discharges were reduced to meet criteria (majority met criteria at this point)

Assessment of area by sediment source category and percent of total area within subwatershed

subsequent reductions based on percent of total pollutant load contributed by each category (if one category is 75% or more of total area – reduce first)

pH/Aluminum Pollutant Sources & Reduction Strategy

Initial step – reduce Iron loadings to meet criteria

Acid precipitation (Fivemile Fork, Horse Fork, Beech Fork and Pheasant Run)

Additional alkalinity added as needed to increase pH and reduce dissolved aluminum

Abandoned Mine Lands

Add additional alkalinity to offset acid precipitation

Reduce total aluminum loads from sediment sources, as needed, to meet dissolved aluminum water quality criteria

Fecal Pollutant Sources & StrategyFecal Coliform

STP effluents represented at existing limits (200/400)

Failing/nonexistent on-site sewage systems – 100% reductions

Combined Sewer Overflows (CSOs) - reduced to water quality criteria (200/400 cts)

Sensitivity Analysis

Agriculture

Urban Runoff

Selenium Allocation MethodologyEvaluate selenium concentration at pour points of

all subwatersheds of Se impaired streams

Use USGS “South Central” equation for 7Q10 flows at subwatershed pour points

Add pumped discharges to 7Q10 for critical flow

Partition critical flow to regulated (Per bd/pumped) discharges and dilutions components

Mass balance to achieve criterion at each subwatershed pour point

Selenium Allocation Methodology continued

Resulting concentration applied to “on bench” outlets

Criterion end-of-pipe WLA applicable to continuous discharges and instream treatment ponds (Implicit MOS)

Ensures criterion are achieved at both pour points for all outlets and immediate discharge location for continuous discharges

See Technical Report Appendix J for details

Stressor identification

Define potential stressors/pathways

Evaluate chemistry, habitat,

field notes, bugs

Determine stressors

Stressor/TMDL LinkageOrganic Enrichment ......FC surrogate

Sediment …….Total Iron surrogate

Metal Toxicity (Al) …….Dissolved Aluminum

pH Toxicity ……..pH

Ionic Stress……deferred

Biological Impairment TMDLs

Linkage

Table 4-1, Page 24

Organic Enrichment Stressor

All biologically impaired streams for which organic enrichment is a significant stressor are also impaired for fecal coliform

Implementation of fecal coliform TMDL will require removal of untreated sewage and animal wastes and remove organic enrichment stress

Fecal TMDL is an appropriate surrogate

Sedimentation StressorAll biologically-impaired streams for which

sedimentation is a significant stressor are also impaired for iron

Sediment reduction needed to meet iron water quality criteria is larger than that needed under reference watershed approach

Iron TMDLs are appropriate surrogate

Sedimentation StressorReference Stream Method (previous approach)

Select unimpaired reference watershed with similar landuse, ecoregion, geomorphological characteristics

Normalized sediment loading in reference watershed is TMDL target for biologically-impaired stream

Present Sediment TMDL

TSS/Iron correlation Method (current approach)Correlate TSS and Iron valuesModel IronPresent Iron TMDLCalculate TSS reduction for FeCompare to TSS reduction for reference approach

Sedimentation Stressor

Table 9.1 on page 55 of draft report

Ionic Stress

Uncertainty exists about exact pollutants or combination of pollutants causing impairments and appropriate thresholds

Streams are being retained on 303d list

WVDEP and USEPA Region III have agreed upon a plan to develop these biological impairment TMDLs by 2014

Future Growth HighlightsNew facility anywhere in watershed if

meeting water quality criteria end of pipe

New sewage discharges w/ 200/400 fecal coliform effluent limits

Subwatershed-specific future growth allowances have been provided for site registrations under the Construction Stormwater General Permit

Full details on Future Growth can be found on page 89 of the Draft report

Public CommentPublic Comment period ends October 14, 2011Documents may be reviewed/downloaded from DEP webpage http://www.dep.wv.gov/WWE/watershed/TMDL/Pages/default.aspx

CD available upon request – CD includes GIS Shapefiles and Technical Report

Comments should be submitted to Steve Young at Stephen.A.Young@wv.gov

Questions - contact Dave Montali, Jim Laine, Mike McDaniel, Ben Lowman

(304) 926-0499 (Ext 1063, 1061, 1055, 1101)

David.A.Montali@wv.gov, James.C.Laine@wv.gov,

Michael.L.McDaniel@wv.gov, Ben.M.Lowman@wv.gov

TMDL Products

Main Report – Overall description of the TMDL for development process for streams in the Elk watershed

Technical Report with detailed appendices

TMDL Products

Allocation spreadsheets:Fecal Coliform, Iron, Aluminum, etc

TMDL for each stream,

WLAs and LAs by SWS

Filterable

GIS shapefiles, along with Technical Report and Appendices, available on CD

Coming soon – web access GIS

CD /Spreadsheets/ GIS Demo