Looking Glass River Watershed Management Plan - Greater ...

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Introduction 6. Goals and Objectives “Water is the most critical resource of our lifetime and our children’s lifetime. The health of our waters is the principal measure of how we live on the land.” - Luna Leopold As more and more people live, work and interact within a watershed, maintaining a healthy, sustainable environment becomes a challenge. To address these challenges, goals and objectives are developed to direct the actions within the watershed that will improve and protect the environment. The purpose of this chapter is to: 1. Outline the water quality issues discussed in Section 4, summarize public and stakeholder concerns, and identify which pollutants are perceived to be of most concern. 2. Define designated uses and identify the impaired or threatened water bodies within the watershed that do not meet their designated uses. 3. Define and identify the watershed desires identified through the stakeholder workshops. 4. List the goals and objectives and identify how they were developed. Water Quality Issues and Concerns It is important to distinguish between water quality issues and water quality concerns. Water quality issues are those water quality problems that have been identified through water quality monitoring, macroinvertebrate and fish sampling, and habitat surveys. Water quality concerns are problems that are observed or perceived to exist by residence and stakeholders within the watershed. Photo courtesy of Michigan State University, 2005. Water Quality Issues Sections 3 and 5 summarized data collected over a span of thirty years in the Looking Glass River and Vermillion Creek. The results show that a variety of impacts have been identified; and one in particular is still present in these water bodies. Biological studies found populations and diversity of fish and macroinvertebrates impaired in the vicinity of the City of Dewitt; possible impacts include rapid runoff from agricultural ditches increasing the potential for erosion. Additional biological sampling in the 1970s has identified wastewater treatment effluent as a primary source of biota impairments in the lower Looking Glass River and Vermillion Creek. Recent studies in the Looking Glass River indicate water quality improvements attributed to the implementation of tertiary wastewater treatment systems. Based on the earlier studies, Water Quality Standards (WQS) violations have been identified in the watershed. The impaired waterbodies are assigned a date to implement a Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) management strategy to address the violation and ultimately restore the water quality. The impaired waterbodies and the TMDL dates are presented in Table 3-9. Section 6: Goals and Objectives 6-1
Goals and Objectives A mission statement was developed by the watershed committee during the initial stages of The Public Participation Plan implementation. The mission is: Improve Water Quality in the Looking Glass River Watershed Using this mission statement along with the identified known pollutants and watershed desires, a set of goals and objectives was developed. The goals reflect the mission statement and are accompanied by a set of objectives and actions which when implemented will assist in meeting the corresponding goal. The actions associated with these objectives are listed in Section 8. In addition to considering the desires of the public and stakeholders during goal and objective development, permit requirements were also considered. The watershed management plan as a whole must contain the following: (See Part I.B.1 of the permit in Appendix C). • An assessment of the nature and status of the watershed ecosystem (Section 2, 3 and 5) • Long-term goals to include the protection of designated uses of the receiving waters and compliance with TMDLs (Sections 6 and 8) • Short-term objectives (Sections 6 and 8) • Action items to achieve goals and objectives (Section 8) • The benefit and cost of the action items (Section 8) • A responsible party, schedule, and evaluation mechanism for each action item (Section 8) Minimum Permit Requirements The objectives in this plan meet the Watershed-Based NPDES Permit requirements, but because of the significant public and stakeholder response, many additional objectives are included in the plan to expand on voiced desires. These additional objectives go beyond the minimum requirement of the permit. Because the Watershed-Based NPDES Permit has broad requirement language, and because of the implication that any implemented objective, directly or indirectly, must help protect the designated uses of the receiving water body, it was necessary to include the minimum requirements from other sources. These sources include the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (US-EPA) Storm Water Phase II Final Rule requirements and the Michigan Jurisdictional-Based NPDES Permit. These two sources were chosen because the Watershed-Based NPDES Permit is based on their requirements. The US-EPA Storm Water Phase II and Jurisdictional-Based NPDES Permit requirements establish six minimum measures. Each minimum measure requirement as well as each specific Watershed- Based NPDES Permit requirement was reviewed to assure that at least one objective correlated with it. In the section below, each goal is prioritized according to what stakeholders deemed important. Objectives are included in the table under each goal. A ‘Yes’ indicates that the objective fulfills one or more permit requirements at a minimum level. A ‘No’ indicates that the objective is considered beyond the minimum requirement of the permit, or that it extends a general effort beyond the minimum requirement of the permit, and may be eligible for certain types of grant funds. During goal and objective development, it became clear that some objectives fulfill minimum 6-2 Looking Glass River Watershed April 2007 US-EPA’s Six Minimum Measures Public Education and Outreach - Distribute educational materials or conduct outreach Public Involvement/ Participation - Comply with state, tribal, and local public notice requirements Illicit Discharge Detection and Elimination - Map waters of the state and the outfalls that discharge to them - Legal authority to prohibit non-storm water discharges - A plan to detect and address non-storm water discharges - Educate staff, businesses, and public about illicit discharges Construction Site Runoff Control - Regulate compliance with proper soil erosion/ sediment control - Review site plans that have potential for water impacts - Conduct site inspection and enforcement - Receive/consider information submitted by public Post-Construction Storm Water Management - Implement strategies to include structural/nonstructural BMPs - Require usage of postconstruction controls - Ensure long-term O&M controls Pollution Prevention/Good Housekeeping - Prevent/reduce pollutant runoff from municipal operations - Train employees on pollution prevention/good housekeeping Source: US-EPA, 2000
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GLRC on Phase II Looking Glass Rive
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Table of Contents Organization of t
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SECTION 10 - Plan Sustainability In
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FIGURES Figure 1-1 Watershed Locati
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Organization of the Plan This plan
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9. Evaluation and Revision Section
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The goals and objectives were then
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Looking Glass Watershed The Looking
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• methods for evaluation of progr
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References Center for Watershed Pro
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The majority of wetlands in the wat
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commonly classified as hydrologic s
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Significant Natural Features to be
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References Centers for Disease Cont
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3. Water Quality Conditions People
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sanitary sewer treatment system has
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Section 3: Water Quality Conditions
Page 48 and 49: Data Analysis Tetra Tech summarized
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Page 54 and 55: Table 3-4 explains the problems fou
Page 56 and 57: Vermillion Creek Assessment Vermill
Page 58 and 59: Volunteers identify the species bas
Page 60 and 61: Watershed Fish Consumption The Mich
Page 62 and 63: The coldwater fishery use does not
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Page 66 and 67: Interpretation of Watershed Conditi
Page 68 and 69: 4. Community Outreach A watershed p
Page 70 and 71: Public Comment on Draft Plan A draf
Page 72 and 73: Public Education Plan Public educat
Page 74 and 75: determining goals and desires for t
Page 76 and 77: Table 5-1 Status of Designated Uses
Page 78 and 79: Sources The main sources of sedimen
Page 80 and 81: the time for the specified month. (
Page 82 and 83: Altered Hydrology Stream flows vary
Page 84 and 85: day as it is at a USGS gauging stat
Page 86 and 87: Figure 5-2 R-B Index at Eagle (USGS
Page 88 and 89: It should also be noted that the su
Page 90 and 91: Detergents are becoming a serious t
Page 92 and 93: Physical Pollutants Physical pollut
Page 94 and 95: Oil and grease are often referred t
Page 96 and 97: Table 5-14 Pesticide: Sources and C
Page 100 and 101: equirements, some objectives go bey
Page 102 and 103: Goal 3: Encourage Water Quality Fri
Page 104 and 105: general health of wetlands, primary
Page 106 and 107: References DAS Manufacturing. “Cu
Page 108 and 109: Several programs are available loca
Page 110 and 111: Better Site Design Better site desi
Page 112 and 113: Non-Storm Water Discharges Non-stor
Page 114 and 115: producers to meet personal objectiv
Page 116 and 117: Michigan Turfgrass Environmental St
Page 118 and 119: 8. Action Plan Source: Basetree, 20
Page 120 and 121: Table 8-1 Benefits of Goals No Goal
Page 122 and 123: 9. Evaluation Mechanisms “Not eve
Page 124 and 125: Evaluation Mechanisms Level One - A
Page 126 and 127: Program Implementation Program impl
Page 128 and 129: The MDEQ/MDNR have conducted analyt
Page 130 and 131: Assessing the evaluation mechanisms
Page 132 and 133: Goal 3: Encourage Water Quality Fri
Page 134 and 135: Goal 6: Protect and Increase Wetlan
Page 136 and 137: Evaluation Action Plan At the end o
Page 138 and 139: Evaluation Mechanisms Municipal Sta
Page 140 and 141: The committee defined appropriate w
Page 142 and 143: “It is the purpose of this Memora
Page 144 and 145: each other about how to protect and
Page 146 and 147: A-2 Looking Glass River Watershed A
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B-2 Looking Glass River Watershed A
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C-2 Looking Glass River Watershed A
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D-2 Looking Glass River Watershed A
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Appendix E Road Stream Surveys Appe
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Appendix F Vermillion Creek Corresp
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