West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection

1. West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection Meadow River TMDL Status Update March 10, 2016

2. Agenda • “Introduction to TMDLs” recap • Overview of TMDL Project & Status • Overview of Allocation Strategies • Discussion – Free form questions and answers

3. What’s a TMDL? • “Total Maximum Daily Load” • How much pollutant a stream can receive and remain healthy • Pollution Budget - prescribes reductions (where needed) of pollutants that result in the restoration of an impaired stream • TMDL development required by Clean Water Act for streams impaired by a pollutant

4. TMDL = S WLA + S LA + MOS • S = “sum of” • WLA = “wasteloadallocations” • LA = “load allocations” • MOS = “margin of safety” • WLAs - pollutant loads from “point sources” • Discharge from point • Need NPDES permit • LAs - pollutant loads from “nonpoint sources” and background • Precipitation/runoff driven • No permit required

5. What’s an impaired stream? • Stream that doesn’t meet water quality standards • West Virginia Water Quality Standards are codified in 47 CSR 2 • http://www.dep.wv.gov/WWE/Programs/wqs/Documents/Rule%20Approved%20Letter%20and%20Rule%20Itself%202014/WVDEP_WQS_2014Tri-Review_FinalRule47CSR2_June_2014.pdf • Standards include “Designated Uses“ for WV waters and “water quality criteria” to protect those uses • Criteria can be numeric or narrative • Impaired streams are enumerated on the 303(d) list

6. West Virginia Section 303(d) List / Integrated Report

8. Numeric Criteria of Concern • Fecal Coliform • Water Contact /Public Water Supply • Shall not exceed 200 counts/100ml as a monthly geometric mean (5 samples/month) • Nor to exceed 400 counts/100 ml in more than 10% of samples in a month • pH • Aquatic Life/Water Contact Recreation/Public Water Supply (All Uses) • No values below 6.0 nor above 9.0.

9. Dissolved Oxygen and Total Iron • TMDL sampling indicated limited areas with depressed D.O. and elevated iron concentrations • Further evaluation of all available information, including source tracking data, revealed these areas are associated with natural conditions (wetlands) – future delisting

11. Meadow River Basin excluding Sewel Creek • 13 TMDL Watersheds • 90 Sample sites on 56 Streams • MDAS model

12. MDAS Model • Watershed Model • Runs dynamically on a 1-hour time step • Represents land use (hydrologic processes) and river processes • Can include nonpoint and point sources

13. Modeling Approach • Segment watershed • Configure model to represent all sources • Calibrate model for hydrology (flow) and water quality • pH • Fecal • Run MDAS for Baseline conditions (existing) • Run MDAS for TMDL scenario(s)

14. Baseline Conditions

15. Completed: Monitoring Source tracking Baseline Modeling Status Update Meeting Next Steps: Allocations Draft Document Public Meeting EPA Approval Meadow River WatershedProject Status

16. Allocation Methodology • Universal Reduction of targeted sources • Straight pipes, Failing Septics, etc • Top-down approach • Headwater subwatersheds analyzed first • Allocation strategy dictates order and magnitude of reduction • If necessary, loads are reduced then routed to downstream subwatershed

17. Allocation Methodology • WVDEP priorities: • Ensure criteria compliance at all sws outlets • Target the primary causative sources • Strategy in general • Critical conditions must be considered • Sometimes only one significant source in sws • Always some amount of professional judgement

18. Fecal Coliform Sources • Point sources • Package Plants • Municipal Sewage Plant • Mining Bathouses • Nonpoint source • Failing septic systems and/or straight pipe illicit discharges • Stormwater runoff from urban/residential lands • Stormwater runoff from agricultural lands

19. Fecal Coliform Strategy • 100% reduction of all untreated sewage discharges (failing septics, straight pipes) as required by WV Bureau for Public Health regulations • Sensitivity analysis to address severity of agricultural vs. urban/residential impacts

20. pH Sources & Strategy • Source • Acid precipitation • Strategy • Assess acid precipitation effects on instream pH • Calculate the amount of alkalinity needed to restore instream pH (6-9 s.u. at all times) • Allocate alkalinity additions by subwatershed to ensure criteria are met in each subwatershed

21. WVDEP TMDL Process (4 yrs) • Stream Selection - (4/2012) • Pre-TMDL monitoring, source identification and characterization - (7/2012 – 6/2013) • Contract to model water quality & hydrology – (11/2014) • Determine baseline condition and allocate pollutant loads • Draft Report development • Finalization and EPA approval

22. Meadow River Watershed TMDL Path Forward • Allocate loads and wasteloads and develop draft report • Formal public comment period and public meeting on the draft TMDLs in Fall 2015 • Address comments, prepare final draft and submit to EPA for approval (final draft will include Response Summary)

23. Contact Information • Comments should be submitted to Steve Young at Stephen.A.Young@wv.gov(10 meg limit for email) • Questions - contact Dave Montali, Jim Laine, Mike McDaniel • (304) 926-0499 • David.A.Montali@wv.gov, James.C.Laine@wv.gov, or Michael.L.McDaniel@wv.gov

24. Discussion/Questions...