Here are my notes from today's meeting.
Peggy Murdock
TMDL Watershed Cleanup January 14, 2002
Bill Ehm opened the meeting with a general presentation, beginning with the
DNR mission statement, emphasizing the importance of cooperation in the
process of working toward cleaner water.
Iowa has two important resources: soils and water.
In Iowa 90% of the land is involved in some sort of agricultural
production. One percent is water. That means there is a 90 to one ratio of
land to water.
There are 90,000 acres of lakes and only 40,000 have been assigned a
designated use. Only 12,000 acres of Iowa's rivers and streams have been
assigned a designated use.
Paul Johnson would say there are two clean water acts in Iowa: the 1972
Clean Water Act and the
1935 Soil Conservation Act. This emphasizes the extent to which Iowa's
water is impacted by land use.
He then reviewed the classifications for water. Class A waters are
designated for contact recreation, which means the water should be free
enough of bacteria and chemicals so that swimmers don't have to worry about
swallowing it; Class B is designed to protect aquatic life - trout in
coldwater streams, catfish and other sportfish in warm water environments;
and, finally, Class C where water, after conventional treatment, will be
suitable for drinking. A waterbody may have one or more designations.
Next he talked about water quality standards. First, there are narrative
criteria which consist of 8 "free froms" such as freedom from toxic
substances, esthetically objectionable odors and colors. More information
may be found on Iowa's "free froms" at
http://www.city.ames.ia.us/waterweb/CollegeCreek/college_creek_d.htm
There are also Numeric Criteria involved in the TMDL program which places
value limits such as the maximum allowable amount of Atrazine in drinking
water. Even where there are no established TMDLS water quality is
protected by the antidegradtion policy which will not allow the water
quality of a stream to deteriorate even when it is well within the maximum
allowable amounts of pollutants.
He then told something of the history behind the Point Source rules,
pointing out that there has been improvement since these limits were
set. Once the odor of the Cedar River pervaded the city of Cedar Rapids
and a river in Ohio burned, which led to the setting of minimum standards.
These standards are technology based, using the best practicable control,
and water quality based where the technology based standards are not adequate.
The DNR may require a point source to exceed the minimum standard because
of the quality of the water in the receiving river.
Every 2 years the DNR assembles a report that includes every one of the
designated waters to determine whether they are fully supporting their
designated uses. If they do not they are added to the impaired water
listing, called the 303(d) list. The EPA allowed Iowa to skip this listing
in 2000. A list will be made this year. At present two thirds of Iowa's
designated lakes are not meeting their standards.
TMDLs are calculated using the maximum amount of pollutant a waterbody can
receive and still meet water quality standards.by using the sum of the
wasteload allocations plus the sum of all the load allocations from non
point sources plus a margin of safety.
The process begins with gathering data from which the 303 (d) list is
compiled. Public input is received and the TMDL is written. The last
stage is implementation.
The three components of implementation are: identification of the problem,
what, where, how; deciding what to do about the problem and allocating the
load between the point and non-point sources.
Iowa's biggest problem is muddy water. Nutrients are second. Three
fourths of the problems could be solved if we could keep the soil on the
land where it belongs because the soil carries all of the other pollutants
with it..
For an example he talked about the Rock Creek TMDL. Rock Creek is a small
stream in Clinton County where there have been fishkills. They found the
water was high in nitrogen and ammonia, identified that the problem started
below a particular bridge and found that there was an abandoned anhydrous
ammonia plant. Ammonia was coming up from the ground and running into the
stream. The TMDL for Rock Creek was designed around ammonia.
The owners of the anhydrous ammonia plant had bought into the business and
operated it for only eighteen months before closing it down, and were very
cooperative. Ammonia was coming up from ground and going into the
stream. The owners constructed a wetland downstream from the area and
planted trees. Riffles were put in place on the stream. Molasses was
injected into the contaminated groundwater to help solve the problem, and
most of the ammonia was converted to nitrate before it hit the wetland.
They are now doing a lot of upstream and downstream monitoring. The
ultimate goal is to protect and conserve in a spirit of cooperation. The
focus is clean water in a thriving Iowa.
[log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
<http://www.state.ia.us/gvernment/dnr/ikndes.html>
There was a question about nitrogen in city sewage. The answer was that
they are discussing how they could determine how much is coming out. At
present the only time they look at nitrogen in city sewage is with ammonia.
Standards for total nitrogen and phosphorus have to be developed by the end
of 2004.
A man asked if things have to be so bad that you can see problems before
something is done. The answer was that every lake in the state is impaired
for phosphorus.
A question was asked about compliance. The questioner had just finished
reviewing a report and said it suggested that it would be nice if buffer
strips and wetlands were put in. He asked if there was money allocated for
this and if there would be steps to ensure the recommendations were
implemented. The answer was that the DNR does not have the authority to go
to a nonpoint source and require buffer strips and wetlands, or prohibit
livestock in streams. In order to encourage compliance the DNR works with
partners, NRCS, local soil and water conservation districts. They try to
define a water quality project to work on with willing landowners.
In limited cases they do have authority. Where there is silt in lakes they
can file a soil loss complaint for damage to the lake. When they do this
cost share money has to be available to landowner to help with implementation.
If farm chemicals damage a site the Department of Agriculture has rules to
cover that. The Department of Health has rules about fecal coliform.
The DNR can tell a city to reduce ammonia to a certain level, but they have
no authority in non-point situations.
What is the status of the proposed TMDL regulations? Answer, - the EPA
rules came out in 80s. Last summer there were new rules which have been
delayed by the new administration. The Clean Water Act does not give
authority to regulate nonpoint sources.
Listing sessions have been concluded now and the EPA has eight months to
finish. By summer they should be floating some new rule.
Who does the monitoring? The DNR has no staff for this purpose and they
contract with the University of Iowa Hygenic Lab.
The rest of the session was spent talking about specific lakes. Detailed
information can be found at
<http://www.state.ia.us/epd/wtresrce/303dnotc.htm> .
The impairments listed were Siltation, nutrients, algal blooms and
Atrazine. There are about as many styles of management as there are people
doing this. some want to rid lakes of all aquatic plants. For example,
some want to introduce vegetation to lakes, some want to eradicate
vegetation. Some use chemicals for eradication, others introduce carp.
Siltation problems are sometimes associated with wind and wave action, and
with colloidal clays that remain suspended for long periods of time.
Q. Some problems are not land based but lake management issues how do you
handle that?
A this is the purpose of the meetings. It is really important to know what
the problems is.
Q Can the department's money be used for lake management?
A Not until the legislature gives the authority to do that. These funds
are now limited to waste water treatment plants and septic systems. 319
funds can be used for a wide variety of purposes but there are some
restrictions. There are limited agricultural department funds. 319 funds
can be used for overland work rather than within the waterbody. Other
types of funding are being used as well.
Q Is there a single impaired waterbody that doesn't have a watershed
application in terms of land application?
A. Probably not.
Q Where will the money come from to deal with soil issues?
A. The money is lacking by two orders of magnitude. The money comes first
from the land owner's pocket because these are cost share programs They
have to rely on federal funds to get this done and on producers to raise
local stewardship on their own.
Q Are REAP funds available?
A. There are water protection and infrastructure monies as well as
watershed protection money.
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