Basin Bites and Technical Tidbits
A
Newsletter
of the
St. Joseph River Basin Commission
Fourth
Quarter—December 2001
The St. Joseph River Basin Commission meeting is scheduled for December 4, 2001 at the Elkhart County Public Services Building, 4230 Elkhart Road (U.S. 33), Goshen. The meeting will begin at 10:00 a.m.
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However, John was known in the area long before his involvement with
the River Basin Commission. For many years, John was a biology teacher at
Fairfield High School in Goshen, and was among the original members of Water
Watchers of Northern Indiana.
Working
under the Indiana Rivers and Streams program, John assisted many
educators throughout Indiana in setting up water resource awareness programs
that included voluntary water quality testing and a multi-discipline curriculum.
In recent years, John had been involved in various grant programs,
training new volunteers to conduct water quality assessments in the St. Joseph
River Basin.
Many will surely miss John’s enthusiasm for the protection and
conservation of our water bodies.
Deepest sympathy is extended to John’s wife Rosemary and the entire Rouch family.
How Much is Too Much?
That is the question that must be answered through the process of Total
Maximum Daily Load.
The 1972 Clean Water Act, Section 303d, instructed States to create a
list of impaired waterbodies—rivers, streams, lakes and coastal waters that
don’t meet basic water quality standards.
Although
the list has been available for some time, the TMDL process to develop cleanup
plans has not been completed. The
Department of Environmental Management is the lead agency in Indiana to develop
the needed TMDLs. IDEM will
probably contract out the work to expedite the process.
In
October 2000, a TMDL for dissolved oxygen and ammonia was issued for Kokomo
Creek. This was the first in the
State, with subsequent TMDLs, expected in the coming year.
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What
is a TMDL?
A Total
Maximum Daily Load is more than just an amount of pollutant allowed to be
discharged into a receiving stream. It
includes the process to determine how much pollutant a waterbody can
handle, before it violates State water quality standards.
It also consists of:
§
Ongoing
evaluation of waterbodies for presence of contaminants;
§
Prioritizing
those waterbodies that violate State Water Quality Standards;
§
Establishing
the amount of pollutant that needs to be reduced to meet the standard—NOTE:
A separate TMDL is developed for each pollutant identified;
§
Developing
strategies to reduce the pollutant;
§
Implementing
the strategies to improve the water quality;
§
Follow-up
to insure the strategies are working.
TMDL values are based on load (mass of pollutant/time -- kilograms or pounds per day) and not concentration (amount of pollutant/ volume -- milligrams/Liter or parts per million). Furthermore, it is the daily amount present, and not an average over a certain period of time. Finally, it is the maximum amount of any one contaminant that can be discharged without violating the water quality standard. Pollutants come from numerous sources, including
Point Source
Nonpoint Source
Margin of Safety
Seasonal Variations
Element of Growth
and all these sources must be factored in when determining the TMDL and the potential clean-up plan.
The TMDL clean-up plan should include milestones to track progress of achieving the water quality standards. A method for tracking implementation of the management measures also needs to be included in the plan.Monitoring
should also be included, to insure that load reductions have helped in the
attainment and maintenance of water quality standards for that particular water
body—the ultimate goal of the TMDL!
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Is TMDL Development in the Future For the
St. Joseph River Basin?
30
waterbodies, some with several segments, have been targeted for TMDL development
in the St. Joseph River Basin, according to the 1998 303(d) listing. Impairments range from mercury and lead, to PCBs and oils and
greases, and from E. coli to fish
consumption advisories and poor macro-invertebrate communities.
Target date for development of the TMDLs range from 2004 to 2015. At least one segment of the St. Joseph River in Indiana is
scheduled for development of an E.coli TMDL within the next couple of
years.
Many
other waterbodies have not had a complete assessment to identify the sources of
impairments; still others have never been evaluated and thereby are currently
not listed due to lack of pertinent information.
Clean
up plans to meet water quality standards will be as varied as the waterbodies
and the contaminants. For some,
stricter enforcement of permit rates may solve the problem. Others may be more broad reaching, and the solutions much
more complex.
Waterbodies listed on the 1998-303(d) list within the St. Joseph River
Basin include:
INDIANA:
Crawford Ditch
Elkhart River
Jimmerson
Lake
Juday Creek
Lake
James
Lake Shipshewana
Lake Wabee
Lake Wawasee
Long
Lake
Marsh Lake
Mather’s
Ditch
Mud Creek
Olin Lake
Orland Tributary
Pigeon Creek
Snow Lake
St. Joseph River
MICHIGAN: