West Fork RiverWatershed TMDLs

West Virginia Department of

Environmental Protection

Draft TMDL Public Meetings

April 21, 2014

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 ttp://apps.sos.wv.gov/adlaw/csr/ruleview.aspx?document=8208

Standards include

“Designated Uses” for

WV waters and the criteria

to protect those uses

Water Quality Criteria can

be numeric or narrative

Numeric Criteria of Concern

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 period Public Water Supply - 1.5 mg/l

Fecal ColiformWater Contact Recreation/Public Water Supply

Shall not exceed 200 counts/100ml as a monthly geometric mean (5 samples/month)

Nor to exceed 400 counts/100 ml in more than 10% of samples in a month

Additional Criteria of Concern

Dissolved AluminumAquatic LifeNot to exceed 750 ug/l as a 1 hour average

concentration more than once in a three year period

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

pHAquatic Life/Water Contact Recreation/Public

Water SupplyNo values below 6.0 nor above 9.0.

Additional criteria of concern

(Bingamon Run & tribs)ChlorideAquatic Life/Water Contact Recreation/Public Water Supply

Not to exceed 230 mg/l as a 4 day average concentration more than once in a three year period

Narrative CriteriaPrevious 47 CSR 2 - 3.2.i

AssessmentBased on Benthic MacroinvertebratesWest Virginia Stream Condition Index (WVSCI)

Standardized method for assessing benthic macroinvertebrates (aquatic bugs)WVSCI stream scores normalized to 0 - 100 rangeStreams scoring less than the 60.6 threshold value labeled as “impaired” and placed on the 303(d) listStreams listed as impaired slated for TMDLs “Biologically Impaired” streams evaluated for source/s of impairment during the TMDL development process (Stressor Identification Process)

Narrative Criteria2012 Legislative Changes

Senate Bill 562 passed by the 2012 West Virginia Legislature amended the WV Water Pollution Control Act

Requires “evaluation of the holistic health of the aquatic ecosystem”

Requires DEP to develop and secure legislative approval of new rules to interpret 47 CSR 2-3.2.i

Section 22-11-7b : http://www.legis.state.wv.us/wvcode/ChapterEntire.cfm?chap=22&art=11

No biological TMDLs are part of this effort

Stressor Identification Process

Method to evaluate stressor/s of biologically impacted streams

Process used to evaluate if numeric TMDLs (iron, fecal) will address biological stressors

Information will be retained and may be used to delist streams in the future (see Table 4.1)

TMDL = WLA + LA + MOS

= “sum of”

WLA = “wasteload allocations”

LA = “load allocations”

MOS = “margin of safety”

WLAs - pollutant loads for “point sources”

Discharge from 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 2010

Initial Public Meetings (TMDL Intro) July 2010

Watershed Monitoring and Source Tracking July 2010 - June 2011

Draft TMDL Public Meeting Today

Impaired Waters

305 named streams – See Table 3-3 beginning on page 11 of Draft Report for a complete list of streams and impairments

Modeling

Modeling

MDAS (Mining Data Analysis System)

Fecal Coliform, iron, chlorides, Al and pH Can handle point and nonpoint sources (representation and allocation)Recognizes exposure duration and exceedence frequency components of criteria

Modeling

52 TMDL watersheds

700 subwatersheds

West Fork mainstem is included

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 Condition

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

Criteria value, duration and 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

(ex.1.425 mg/l for 1.5 mg/l 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

Pollutant Sources (Iron)Streambank erosion

Abandoned Mine Lands

Upland Sediment Sources

Harvested Forest

Oil and Gas

Agriculture

Urban Residential Stormwater

Roads

Active Mining

Construction Stormwater General Permits

Iron Reduction Strategy

Streambank Erosion reduced to reference stream loadings

Sediment sources, including AML, set to iron loadings equivalent to 100 mg/l TSS

AML seeps set to WQ at end of pipe

Mining point sources set to WQ at end of pipe where needed for modeled attainment

Iron Reduction Strategy continuedFuture growth for Construction Stormwater

throughout the impaired watershed drainage was initially allocated at 2.5% of subwatershed area

If further reductions needed then based on sensitivity analysis:

CSGP areas were reduced incrementally from 2.5 to 0.5 % and/or

Dominant land sources were reduced incrementally below 100 TSS threshold until endpoint is met or 70 mg/l TSS

If further reductions needed at subwatershed pour points then CSGP areas were reduced to 0%

Nonpoint source reductions did not result in LA lower than background concentrations

Point Source reductions did not result in WLA more stringent than water quality standards end of pipe

Modeled Aluminum Sources

Significant Dissolved Aluminum/pH sources:

Abandoned Mine Land seeps

Atmospheric Acid Deposition

Active mining sources and sediment associated aluminum sources were also represented in the model but no reduction was required

Dissolved Aluminum/pH Reduction Strategy

All pH/Dissolved Aluminum impaired streams are also impaired for iron

First step is reduction of total iron sources (e.g. seeps) to meet iron TMDL endpoints since instream dissolved iron concentrations can reduce pH levels and affect instream dissolved aluminum levels

Alkalinity was added to achieve target pH of approximately 6.5 at all subwatershed pourpoints.

If further reductions were needed, total aluminum reductions and/or further alkalinity additions were made until Al(d) and pH TMDL endpoints were met

Fecal Pollutant Sources & StrategyFecal Coliform

STP effluents represented at existing limits (200/400)

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

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

Sensitivity Analysis based reductions

Urban runoff

Agriculture

Source allocations developed for all subwatersheds contributing to chloride impaired streams

Individual WLAs were developed for all high volume, pumped discharge, mining outlets (discharges dominated stream flow)

Individual WLA based on chronic aquatic life protection criterion (230 mg/l)

Non appreciable chloride contributions from all other sources are contained in aggregated loads for Background & other Nonpoint sources

Future Growth HighlightsNew facility anywhere in watershed if

meeting water quality criteria end of pipe

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

Full details on Future Growth can be found beginning on page 86 of the Draft report

Public CommentPublic Comment period ends May6, 2014Documents 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

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

David.A.Montali@wv.gov

James.C.Laine@wv.gov

TMDL Products

Main Report – Overall description of the TMDL development process for the West Fork River watershed

Technical Report with detailed appendices

TMDL Products

Allocation spreadsheets:

Fecal Coliform, Iron, Dis. Al, pH, Chlorides

TMDL for each stream,

WLAs and LAs by SWS

Filterable

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

CD /Spreadsheets/ GIS Demo