2020 WATERSHED ASSESSMENT & PLANNING ACTIVITIES

The Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM) Office of Water Quality (OWQ) is responsible for protecting public health and the environment by assessing Indiana’s surface waters pursuant to the Clean Water Act (CWA) and Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) and for implementing a regulatory framework to achieve those goals. Following the  Indiana Water Quality Monitoring Strategy: 2017-2021  (WQMS) (IDEM 2017b), the Watershed Assessment and Planning Branch (WAPB) monitors surface waters collecting chemical, physical, habitat, and biological data for the following purposes:

·  To fulfill requirements of the CWA § 305(b), § 303(d) and § 314 to assess all waters of the state to determine if they are meeting their designated uses and to identify those waters that are not.

·   To support OWQ programs including water quality standards (WQS) development, National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permitting, and compliance.

·   To support public health advisories and address emerging water quality issues.

·   To support watershed planning and restoration activities.

·   To determine water quality trends and to evaluate the performance of programs.

·   To engage and support a volunteer monitoring network across the state.

The following monitoring programs are employed to achieve the above objectives:

·   Probabilistic monitoring in one basin/year on a 9-year rotating basin cycle.

·   Fixed Station monitoring at 165 sites across the state (2 added in 2014 for Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) National Water Quality Initiative (NWQI).

·   Fish tissue and sediment contaminants monitoring on a 5-year rotating basin cycle.

·   Targeted (watershed characterization) monitoring for Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) reassessments and development, watershed baseline planning, and performance measures determinations.

·   Cyanobacteria monitoring of 14 Department of Natural Resources lakes/reservoirs and the Fort Benjamin dog park lake.

·   Special studies such as remediation follow-up sampling.

·   Thermal verification studies.

·   Hoosier Riverwatch (HRW) program citizen volunteer monitoring.

Highlighted below are the 2020 surface water quality monitoring projects.

The  White River Mainstem Project  is a collaborative effort between the Indiana Department of Environmental Management (IDEM), Indiana Department of Natural Resources (IN DNR), and the Muncie Sanitary District's Bureau of Water Quality (BWQ) to sample the West Fork White River and White River mainstem from its headwaters to its confluence with the Wabash River during summer 2020. Monitoring activities include Water Chemistry, Fish Community, and Benthic Macroinvertebrate Community sampling to help these agencies understand the condition of these rivers, both in terms of water quality and their ability to support healthy and diverse fish and macroinvertebrate (aquatic insects, crustaceans and snails) communities. More on this project's activities can be followed  here .

The Fixed Station Monitoring Program is one component of the WQMS designed to broadly assess all waters of the state monthly at 165 targeted sites.

This program has 6 specific objectives:

•   To determine chemical, physical, and bacteriological characteristics of Indiana water under changing conditions.

•   To indicate, when possible, the sources of pollution entering a stream.

•   To compile data for trend analyses and future pollution abatement activities.

•   To determine background data on certain types of chemicals or wastes, such as chlorides and radioactive materials, and to detect critical changes.

•   To obtain data useful for municipal, industrial, agricultural, and recreational decision-making processes. This includes the Total Daily Maximum Load (TMDL) process and National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit modeling.

•   To procure data useful and necessary for securing public action toward the preservation of streams for all beneficial uses.

In addition, this program provides representative data for the statewide assessments of the water quality required by IDEM’s Water Quality Monitoring Strategy. These data provide benchmark information for long-term trend analyses on a broader scale at the main stems and selected tributaries of the major rivers of the state. Also, an examination of these data relative to water quality standards provides the identification of any immediate emerging problems.

The Fixed Station Monitoring Program was created in 1957 by the Division of Sanitary Engineering, Indiana State Board of Health. Initially, 49 sites statewide were selected for the bi-weekly collection of surface water samples for physical, chemical and bacteriological analyses for water quality monitoring. On April 2, 1986, IDEM was created and the Office of Water Management (OWM), now called the Office of Water Quality (OWQ), assumed operation of this program. Various changes and improvements have been made since this program was first established and taken over by IDEM.

Currently, the Indiana Fixed Station Water Quality Monitoring Program is designed to gather monthly water quality data from  165 regular sampling locations statewide . Most of these sampling locations target major rivers, enabling water quality assessments to be made year after year that can show changes in the monitoring parameters and pollutants from upstream to downstream on the waterbodies.

Every year, as each sampling location is sampled and evaluated, some of the sampling locations may be dropped and other new sampling locations may be added depending on the perceived usefulness of the data. The basic goal of this program is met when water quality assessments are completed.

This year, as part of our Fixed Station Program efforts, extra samples are being taken to help with the  Domestic Action Plan (DAP)  Annex 4 on Nutrients assessment efforts for Lake Erie. The focus is on Dissolved Reactive Phosphorus (DRP) in the Western Lake Erie Basin (WLEB) as an indicator of the phosphorus contributing to the algal bloom in the western end of Lake Erie specifically coming from the mouth of the Maumee River.

The main objective of the probabilistic monitoring project is to provide a comprehensive, unbiased assessment of the ability of rivers and streams in the  West Fork and lower White River  basin to support aquatic life and recreational uses. A secondary objective is diatom identification and enumeration, with the goal of developing algal metrics as an assessment tool to support nutrient criteria. Sampling begins in May and continues through October 2020, conditions permitting, with collected samples analyzed for chemical, physical, and biological parameters. Laboratory processing and data analysis will continue through spring of 2021. Data collected during probabilistic monitoring is used for the following purposes:

• To provide water quality and biological data for assessment of aquatic life and recreational uses as integral components of the IDEM’s biennial Integrated Water Monitoring and Assessment Report (Integrated Report); thus satisfying Clean Water Act (CWA) sections 305(b) and 303(d) reporting requirements to the U.S. EPA (33 U.S.C. §1251 et seq. 1972).

• To give a statistically valid estimation of the percent of stream miles supporting or nonsupporting for aquatic life and recreational uses in the basin of interest.

• To provide water quality and biological data which may be useful for municipal, industrial, agricultural, and recreational decision making processes. Processes include the Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) process and National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit modeling of waste load allocations.

• To compile water quality and biological data for trend analyses and future pollution abatement activities.

• To aid in the development of nutrient criteria as well as refined chemical and narrative biological water quality criteria.

The objective of the 2020 Reference Site Monitoring Project is to provide physical, chemical, and biological data from reference sites that will be used to develop/refine the Index of Biotic Integrity (IBI) for aquatic assemblages (including diatoms, macroinvertebrates, and fish) as well as biological criteria for aquatic life use assessments.

The IBI is composed of 12 biological assemblage characteristics or metrics that assess the aquatic communities’ structural, compositional, and functional integrity. Different IBI metrics may be used depending on variables such as what part of the state you are sampling (ecoregion) and size of stream (drainage area). The 12 different metrics can score 0, 1, 3, or 5, which represents the deviation from expected community structure (i.e. 5 = no deviation from expectations, 0 = severe deviation from expected community structure). The total IBI score can range from 0 (severe disturbance) to 60 (excellent, comparable to “least impacted” conditions). For more information on fish and macroinvertebrate IBI, view Appendix 1 & 2 of the  work plan .

Reference sites are located in areas with the least amount of anthropogenic disturbance and are considered the most natural remaining areas within a specified geographic boundary. Candidate sites are chosen based on abiotic factors such as land use, water chemistry, and in-stream physical habitat that function as potential stressors to the biotic components (i.e. fish/macroinvertebrate/diatom communities) of the stream or river ecosystem.

The main objective of the watershed characterization monitoring project is to use an intensive targeted watershed design that characterizes the current condition of an individual watershed. This type of monitoring provides valuable data for the purposes of assessment, Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) development, watershed planning, and allows for future comparisons to evaluate changes in the water quality within the watershed(s) studied. Selecting a spatial monitoring design, with sufficient sampling density to accurately characterize water quality conditions, is a critical step in the process of developing an adequate local scale watershed study.

IDEM selected the  Maria Creek Watershed  Characterization Monitoring Sampling Area (10-digit Hydrologic Unit Code or HUC 0512011118) for a watershed characterization project. Sample sites were chosen using a modified geometric site selection process as well as targeted site selection in order to get the necessary spatial representation of the entire study area. Sites within this watershed were selected based on a geometric progression of drainage areas starting with the area at the mouth of the main stem stream and working upstream through the tributaries to the headwaters. Monitoring sites were then located to the nearest bridge.

A more complete description of the Modified Geometric Design Steps for Watershed Characterization Studies selection process is included as Attachment 1. in the  work plan . Sample sites were also chosen at the nearest bridge to the pour point (the lowest point in the basin through which all water flows) of each 12-digit HUC in the watershed, or chosen to characterize sources for TMDL development.

It is anticipated that the water quality data collected through this monitoring effort will provide the information needed to characterize the watershed for the  TMDL Program  and local water quality managers, identify sources of impairment, designate critical areas, and enable users to make valid and informed watershed decisions. This project, by design, will also add new stream reaches for assessment of aquatic life use support, recreational use support, and will allow for future comparisons to evaluate changes in water quality.

The approved 2018 303(d) list submitted to the U.S. EPA identifies 55.00 miles of impaired streams in the Maria Creek Watershed with some reaches containing multiple impairments. The total number of miles per each impairment in the Maria Creek Watershed is reported in the following ways:

·      Category 5(a): Impaired Biotic Community (IBC), 22.64 miles

·      Category 5(a): Dissolved Oxygen Impaired (DO), 5.14 miles

·      Category 5(a): Escherichia coli (E. coli), 55.00 miles

The Section 319 Nonpoint Source Grant and Section 205(j) Water Quality Planning Grant provide watershed groups with funding to support watershed planning and implementation activities such as drafting Watershed Management Plans, installing Best Management Practices through cost-share programs and supporting assessment and education opportunities in watersheds around the state. This map illustrates the activities currently planning and implementing plans and watersheds where these activities have recently been completed. For more on the Nonpoint Source Program projects, you can check out the  project summaries  and completed  watershed management plans  on our website.