Minnesota's Impaired Waters and TMDLs

TMDL Project: High Island Creek (Turbidity and Impaired Biota) and Rush River (Turbidity) Watersheds

Background

This TMDL project addresses the turbidity and biota impairments within the High Island and Rush River qatersheds. The TMDL study is currently underway and is being developed by the Minnesota State University Mankato -Water Resources Center. A stakeholder committee representing urban, agriculture, watershed projects, government, and citizens is currently under development.

This TMDL is part of a nationwide effort under the Clean Water Act to identify and clean up pollution in streams, rivers and lakes. The federal Clean Water Act requires states to adopt water quality standards to protect the nation’s waters. The Clean Water Act also requires states to assess all waters of the state and develop cleanup plans for waters that do not meet water quality standards.

Project schedule:

• The project work plan has been developed.
• Further assessment and monitoring is taking place along side analysis of existing data and background conditions.
• The Water Resources Center is currently drafting portions of the TMDL.
• A draft of the report will be out in early 2011.

Map and location

This project is located in the Lower Minnesota River watershed in the Minnesota River Basin.  For a map of this impairment, see the Google map below or the Impaired Waters Viewer.

TMDL report and implementation plan

TMDL in progress.

Other documents

• Assessing and Listing Impaired Waters
• Background on Total Maximum Daily Loads

Meetings and events

The High Island Creek Impaired Biota TMDL Project will hold a public meeting to present data collected during the 2009-2010 monitoring seasons. The data will be used to determine stressors to the fish community of High Island Creek. The meeting will be held at the Sibley County Service Center located at 111 8^th Street in Gaylord, Minnesota on November 19, 2010 at 10:00 am.

•  Public meeting flyer (wq-iw7-30h)

See the TMDL Meetings, Events and News page for notices of general interest and event-related information on impaired waters/TMDLs.

Links

Federal and State requirements for TMDLs:

• U.S. Environmental Protection Agency - TMDL Sediment guidance
• MPCA Turbidity TMDL Protocol

Why is turbidity a concern?

• MPCA turbidity fact sheet

Where do the water quality standards come from?

• MPCA Water Quality Standards

Where does the data come from for these TMDLs?

It comes from a variety of sources. The majority of the data used for this TMDL was collected by various Clean Water Partnership (CWP) projects, the Metropolitan Council monitoring program, and 319 grants used to gather water quality data.

• Clean Water Legacy and Monitoring data
• Clean Water Partnership information
• Section 319 information
• Metropolitan Council

What is the Clean Water Legacy Act? What are its rules and requirements?

• Clean Water Legacy Act Fact sheet
• Clean Water Legacy Act Statute

Other Links:

• Basins in Minnesota
• Minnesota River Basin
• Minnesota River Basin Data Center

Information contact

Scott MacLean, Project Manager
Minnesota Pollution Control Agency
12 Civic Center Plaza, Suite 2165
Mankato, Minnesota  56001
507-344-5250

Scott Bohling
Water Resources Center, MSUM
184 Trafton Science Center, South
Mankato, MN  56001
507-389-2355

Brooke Patterson
Rush River Clean Water Partnership Coordinator
111 - 8th Street
Gaylord, MN  55334
507-237-7409

Joel Wurscher
High Island Creek Clean Water Partnership Coordinator
111 Eighth Street
Gaylord, MN  55334
507-237-4050