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Minnesota Stream

Minnesota's Impaired Waters and TMDLs

Impaired Waters List

2012 TMDL List

During the draft 2012 TMDL List 30-day public comment period, the agency received more than 35 comments, contained in the file below.

The document below contains the agency's response to comments received.

Note: MPCA response to EPA’s request to add Jail and Wine lakes to the draft 2012 TMDL List and Inventory

On September 17, 2012, the MPCA mailed to Region 5 EPA the draft 2012 TMDL List Response to Comments. Included in that Response was Issue letter J; two separate commenters had requested that the agency should add Jail Lake (18-0415-00) in the Pine River watershed and Wine Lake (03-0398-00) in the Otter Tail River watershed to the draft 2012 TMDL List.

As background, the MPCA’s watershed approach for assessment and listing makes very clear that the MPCA intends to review all appropriate data for all waters in a watershed as part of a comprehensive assessment, and that deviations from the watershed schedule will be considered by exception, and will only move forward if the local benefits of the schedule exception offset the lost assessment efficiency and effectiveness that results from an “out-of-order” assessment. In both of these lakes, that comprehensive assessment was scheduled after 2012. And in each case, when specifically asked, neither requester provided the justification needed to trigger the "exception" offset. As such, our response concluded that an “early” inclusion was disruptive to a very labor-intensive process.

On November 30, 2012, the Agency received an email from Region 5 EPA requesting that the Agency add these two lakes to the 2012 draft TMDL List. Included in their rationale was the presence of appropriate assessment language in the MPCA Guidance Manual and an adequate amount of data in EQuIS, the MPCA data storage and retrieval tool.

While we do not fully concur with the reasoning included in EPA’s email, the agency understands that the TMDL List is a federal list for which EPA has final responsibility. In this specific instance, the agency will add the two lakes to the draft 2012 TMDL List at EPA’s request.

Background

Water quality standards are fundamental tools that help protect Minnesota’s abundant and valuable water resources from pollution. “Beneficial uses” are the uses that water resources and their associated aquatic communities provide. Under the federal Clean Water Act, states are required to monitor and assess their waters to determine if they meet water quality standards and thereby support the beneficial uses they are intended to provide. Waters that do not meet their designated uses because of water quality standard violations are impaired. States are then required to develop a list of impaired waters that require TMDL studies, and to submit an updated list to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency every even-numbered year for approval.

The draft 2012 TMDL list and supporting documentation

Minnesota’s draft 2012 TMDL List (also known as the 303(d) List) contains 2171 impairments that require TMDL studies; 511 of those impairments are proposed new listings. The Inventory of all impaired waters now totals 3,638, which includes impairments in need of TMDLs, those with completed TMDLs that have not yet been restored, and impairments due to natural sources. Water bodies can be listed for more than one pollutant or reach. TMDL Listing information and documents can be viewed on the Impaired Waters List page.

There are four documents below: a document containing TMDL List information with multiple tabs, a document containing the Inventory of all impaired waters with multiple tabs, a document containing changes to the EPA-approved Mercury TMDL, Appendix A with multiple tabs, and the Guidance Manual for assessing the water quality of Minnesota waters.

The proposed new listings are dominated by impaired biological communities (44 percent of new listings) and bacteria impairments (23 percent of new listings). Also new to the draft 2012 TMDL List is the first-ever listing of chlorpyrifos, a broad-spectrum insecticide used on agricultural food and non-food crops, and greenhouse and turf applications.

The draft 2012 list is the first developed under a refined approach to assessment that focuses on comprehensive assessment of water quality within major watersheds. MPCA has developed a 10-year schedule for monitoring and assessing each of Minnesota’s 81 major watersheds. The schedule can be viewed on the Watershed Approach page. For the 2012 List, the assessed watersheds are:

  • Pomme de Terre
  • N. Fork of the Crow
  • Sauk
  • Little Fork
  • Le Sueur
  • Mississippi (St Cloud)
  • St. Croix (Stillwater)
  • St. Louis
  • Chippewa
  • Mississippi (Red Wing)
  • Root
  • Cedar
  • Shell Rock
  • Buffalo
  • Tamarac (Red R. of the North)
  • Red R. of the North (Headwaters)

Some assessment activities – those involving potentially toxic pollutants – continue to occur primarily on a statewide basis to reflect the monitoring design for those pollutants.

When developing the TMDL List, the MPCA is required to list, prioritize, and attach a schedule which estimates starting dates and completion dates for developing the TMDL for each affected reach or lake. Schedules are estimated because pollutants vary in complexity and schedules must be consistent with basin planning. Please note this is not a schedule of when the waterbody will no longer be impaired.

Revisions to Appendix A of the approved statewide mercury TMDL

In addition to developing the draft TMDL List, every two years the MPCA also updates information in the approved statewide mercury TMDL about mercury-impaired waterbodies, based on newly completed assessments of mercury in fish tissue. The MPCA mercury TMDL is comprised of the reduction goal for mercury deposition in the main body of the report and two appendices. Appendix A contains the list of lakes and river segments covered by the Mercury TMDL and Appendix B contains the list of National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permittees covered by the mercury TMDL.

The waterbodies in Appendix A have fish tissue concentrations greater than 0.2 mg/kg and equal to or less than 0.572 mg/kg. Greater concentrations result in inclusion in the TMDL List. Since the Appendix was last updated, during the development of the 2010 TMDL List, an additional 109 impairments of mercury in fish tissue have been identified within that range and are therefore proposed to be included in Appendix A. This brings the total number of mercury fish-tissue impairments identified in Appendix A to 1,222. It is important to note that the mercury TMDL documentation and reduction goals are NOT being changed; only Appendix A is being modified.

Public meeting and public notice details

Below is the MPCA's public meeting and public notice period schedule for the draft 2012 TMDL List. In accordance with the requirements of Section 303(d) of the Federal Clean Water Act, the MPCA conducted a series of public informational meetings across the state to discuss the agency’s watershed approach and its 2012 draft list of stream segments, lakes, and wetlands that have impaired designated uses that require the completion of total maximum daily load (TMDL) reports. The meeting schedule was as follows:

  • Wednesday, December 21, 2011, 9-12 p.m. Rochester-MPCA Office 18 Wood Lake Drive SE
  • Wednesday, January 11, 2012, 1-3 p.m. Detroit Lakes-MPCA Office 714 Lake Ave.
  • Thursday, January 12, 2012, 1-3 p.m. St. Paul – MPCA Office 520 Lafayette Road North
  • Wednesday, January 18, 2012, 1-3 p.m. Brainerd-MPCA Office 7678 College Rd., Baxter
  • Thursday, January 19, 2012, 1-3 p.m. Duluth-MPCA Office 525 Lake Ave.
  • Tuesday, January 24, 2012, 2-4 p.m. Benson: McKinney’s on Southside
  • Wednesday, January 25, 2012, 1-3 p.m. Blue Earth County Public Library, Mankato

The list will be on formal public notice from January 23 – February 27, 2012. Interested parties are encouraged to attend one or more of the public meetings to learn about the draft list, and to submit comments during the public notice period.

All of the public meetings listed above were held in MPCA conference rooms, except for the Mankato meeting, which was held at the Blue Earth County Library: 100 East Main Street, Mankato, and the Benson meeting, which was held at McKinneys On Southside: 300 14th St. S., Benson. The start times are firm.

The formal 30-day Public Comment Period will beginning with a notice in the State Register on January 23, 2012 and end at 4:30 pm on February 27, 2012. All comments received during that period, and Agency responses, will be forwarded to EPA, along with the final draft TMDL list and accompanying documentation for their review and approval. There is a strong preference for receiving electronic (e-mail) comment letters but postal comment letters or Facsimile comment letters [fax to: 651-297-7709] are acceptable also. All comment letters must have postal return addresses.

Comments can include requests for new listings or removals from the list (i.e. delistings), as well as comments on the proposed listings on the draft 2012 TMDL List. While the MPCA’s monitoring and assessment efforts primarily follow the major watershed schedule, interested parties are able to propose additional listings outside of the watershed schedule during the public notice. To honor the watershed schedule and maintain the integrity of the systematic approach, any proposals for listing outside of the watershed schedule must 1) explain why moving forward with assessment is necessary separate from the comprehensive watershed assessment, and 2) demonstrate that the MPCA’s assessment methods were followed for the monitoring, analysis, and comparison of the data against state standards. The MPCA will review the proposal and make the determination regarding impairment and listing prior to submitting the final draft list to EPA for approval.

Future correspondence

Finally, please note that as part of the MPCA’s overall efforts to reduce paper waste and enhance efficiency of communication, we will no longer be sending out updates to the TMDL (303d) Impaired Waters List by postal mail; instead, future correspondence will be in the form of e-mail notices with links to additional information. These changes will maintain access to information through the MPCA website, save time, and reduce mailing costs. To receive future email notices electronically, click on the “sign up” box on the upper right side of this page.

Thank you for your interest in TMDLs and the list of impaired waters. If you have further questions, you may contact Miranda Nichols at 651-757-2614, 800-657-3864, or miranda.nichols@state.mn.us. Other contacts are Mark Tomasek at 651-757-2788 and Doug Hansen at 651-757-2406 if Miranda is not available.

TMDL list archives

Delisting: Background and decisions

Delisting refers only to the situation for which new and reliable data or information indicates that the waterbody is no longer impaired. The delisting summary documentation gives the following information for each waterbody that is delisted: assessment unit identification (AUID), waterbody name and description, impaired use, use classification, pollutant or stressor, year first listed, year delisted, and reason for delisting.

For each waterbody that has been considered for delisting the summary documentation also provides information about any previous delisting reviews, the delisting decision, and reason for the decision.

Last modified on June 06, 2013 14:59
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