Draft Water Quality Impairment Issues Paper, 7-16-2003 version
What is the issue?
The water that flows through the Chehalis Basin is used by many people for many purposes. Each of those uses relies upon having ample supplies of suitable quality water. Some uses require water of very high quality. Other uses can make do with water of lower quality. State and federal law require that water quality be protected or restored to ensure that all water-dependant uses are supported.1
Surface waters that do not meet state water quality standards are considered to be "impaired" - a term that comes from section 303d of the federal Clean Water Act. The list of impaired waters is sometimes referred to as the "303d list." A water that is identified as impaired must receive special attention with the goal of restoring its quality so that it meets state standards. The Clean Water Act has a process for applying this special attention -- it is called a Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL). TMDLs start with a detailed study of the problem and result in specific clean-up strategies. In Washington State, the settlement of a federal court case specifies how the state will work towards completing TMDLs for all impaired waters within 15 years. This paper describes what is meant by water quality impairment, the purpose of water quality standards, and federal requirements when water bodies are identified as impaired. TMDLs are discussed in detail in a separate issue paper.
What is the background to this issue?
The Chehalis Basin Partnership established the following water quality goals for the Chehalis Basin Watershed Plan: to prevent degradation of and/or to improve water quality to have clean water (as defined in the Washington State Water Quality Standards) for all fish, wildlife and human uses.
State surface and groundwater quality standards have been developed to protect designated 'beneficial uses' including the following: in-home domestic use, livestock watering, supporting different species and life stages of fish, irrigation, industrial use, primary contact recreation (swimming) and secondary contact recreation (boating, fishing).
Surface water quality monitoring data show that some areas of the Chehalis River and some tributaries meet current state surface water quality standards, but others do not. Some areas do not meet state water quality standards because they are too warm, or the level of dissolved oxygen it too low, or there is too much fecal coliform bacteria present. Other possible causes of impairment include high nutrient levels, pH levels that are too high or too low, sediment and invasive aquatic plants.
Water that is identified as impaired must receive special attention with the goal of restoring its quality so that it does meet the state standards. The process for bringing water quality back up to meet standards is called a Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL). TMDLs start with a detailed study of the problem and result in specific clean up strategies. TMDLs are most often prepared by the Washington State Department of Ecology but they may be done by others as long as they meet EPA approval.
Although unseen, groundwater is a vital resource to the citizens, economy and environment of Washington State. Groundwater supplies more than a quarter of the total state water demand and is estimated to provide at least 65% of the drinking water for the state's residents. As a fundamental component of the hydrologic cycle, groundwater also plays a critical role in sustaining stream and river base flow and maintaining the quality of riparian and wetland ecosystems. Because surface water is already extensively allocated in many areas, groundwater will undoubtedly supply an increasing percentage of our water needs as our population grows. Groundwater data show that nitrate concentrations are a concern in some areas.
Surface and groundwater quality monitoring data are limited, and we may be unaware of areas that do not meet state surface or groundwater quality standards because they have not been monitored.
Possible Alternative Solutions & Analysis
Continue Implementing Existing Programs with Existing Resources (Status Quo) - This alternative will result in outcomes similar to what we have seen to date. The Department of Ecology is responsible for identifying impaired waters and initiating clean up activities (TMDLs). Ecology will continue to carry out this role using available resources. Public involvement in Ecology-led processes includes the opportunity to comment on proposed revisions to state water quality standards and on TMDL priority setting processes and priority lists; the public can also participate in the development and implementation of TMDLs.
Basin-Wide Comprehensive Monitoring Plan - Implementation of a basin-wide comprehensive monitoring plan being developed as part of the watershed plan for the Chehalis Basin will identify improvements in areas with impaired water quality and identify additional areas that may be impaired. Monitoring data will also help prioritize areas for cleanup and protection.
Protection of areas of healthy water so that they do not become impaired - This alternative is the subject of an issue paper on its own. Briefly, preventing impairment is much less time consuming and expensive than cleaning up impaired waters and results in fewer regulated outcomes.
Proactive water quality clean up of impaired waters before TMDLs are developed - The goal of the Clean Water Act is protecting the quality of waters that meet or exceed water quality standards and restoring those that do not. While the Clean Water Act contains tools such as TMDLs for restoring water quality, it recognizes restoration or cleanup that occurs as a result of other processes. The key is to study the situation enough to understand the causes of degradation, to identify practices that will effectively halt the degradation, to implement those practices, and to track (monitor) results.
Programs to clean up impaired waters can be implemented at the local level without waiting for state or federal intervention. Effective tools that can be used within the context of a coordinated effort to clean up impaired waters include local or site specific resource planning, implementation of Best Management Practices (agriculture, forestry, stormwater), local land use controls (density, buffers, Critical Area Ordinances, buffers), etc.
The benefit of this approach is that problems can be resolved without federal or state oversight, using processes and practices that are supported at the local level. To be successful, this approach requires local leadership and support.
Recommend Use-Based Water Quality Standards for the Chehalis Basin - The proposed new water quality standards for the State of Washington contain a provision for water quality criterion based on the actual use of a specific water body. For example, under the current standards, unless a water body is specifically classified as being "class AA", "class B" or "class C", the default is for the water body to be classified as "class A" water. All "class A" waters in the current water quality standards are assumed to support salmonid spawning and rearing and to have a dissolved oxygen criterion and temperature criterion designed to support those uses whether or not salmonids are actually present. Use-based standards, on the other hand, would first determine the actual uses in various portions of the basin and then set the water quality criterion based on those actual uses.
Regional (Basin) Water Quality Management District - A regional water quality management district could assume oversight of water quality in the basin. This alternative may require state legislative action to allow delegation of water quality protection from the Department of Ecology to the local board. It would certainly require funding support and would result in the need for on-going coordination. If this alternative is considered, additional research would have to be done on existing laws and authorities.
Recommendations
#2Basin Wide Water Quality Monitoring Plan
#3 Protect areas of high-quality water so that they don't become impaired
#4 Proactive water quality clean up of impaired waters before TMDLs are developed
#5 Recommend Use-Based Water Quality Standards for the Chehalis Basin
Implementation
The experience of relying upon TMDLs to restore water quality in the Chehalis Basin has not been a pleasant one for any of the parties involved. What we have learned from that experience is that TMDLs are time consuming and expensive, and they leave people feeling they have been forced into implementing actions they are not convinced will have real and positive effects on water quality.
Effective management of impaired water quality will require a coordinated effort among all jurisdictions and interest groups. The water quality element of the watershed plan can provide a framework for that coordinated effort. If a locally-controlled water quality program is to be successful, each jurisdiction will have to contribute. The difficulty is that every one of the jurisdictions that has a role in protecting or restoring water quality faces the same problem -- limited resources and competing demands for those resources. Unless preventing additional water quality impairments and voluntary clean up of identified impaired waters are made priorities for everyone involved the chances are good that, by default, TMDLs will continue to be the tool the state is forced to use to clean up impaired waters.
To effectively implement the four recommendations above, the watershed plan should achieve the following results:
Establishment of a joint local coordinating body to provide continued oversight, direction and mid-course corrections as needed.
Formal agreement that identifies the actions each participant commits to undertake. This agreement would probably have to be revised at least annually to address new conditions.
Local commitment to participating in a comprehensive, basin-wide monitoring effort designed to identify areas that meet, do not meet, or are at risk of not meeting, state water quality standards. This will have to be an on-going program.
Local oversight of new and existing land uses to ensure that water quality is not degraded.
Local programs to clean up waters that have been identified as impaired. These programs will have to include schedules for achieving results and a follow-up monitoring program to document results.
State acceptance of this locally-controlled program and a commitment to providing a fair share of the necessary funding.
Local sources of funding.
These actions will be controversial. The pay-off for taking on this responsibility is more local influence on the outcome. The result of not taking it on will be more TMDL-driven outcomes.
Unanswered or Associated Issues and Data Gaps
Information Gaps:
The quality of water where monitoring has not been done
The effects on water quality of invasive exotic plants or animal species.
The effects of pesticides used to control invasive aquatic or terrestrial plants and animal species on water quality.
The effects of seals on water quality in Grays Harbor
The quantified effects of individual sources of water quality impairment such as: septic systems, stormwater runoff, livestock wastes, etc.
A map of impaired waters and contaminated ground water that is legible at a scale that can be included with this issue paper.
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