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Boulder Elkhorn Project Outreach

Page history last edited by Christina Staten 10 years, 3 months ago Saved with comment

Boulder-Elkhorn TMDL Planning Area Home

Documents     Photos

 

Below you will find project status updates, copies of meeting presentations, and contact information for the Boulder-Elkhorn TMDL Project. This project was completed in 2013.


 

ANNOUNCEMENTS & UPDATES

December 10, 2013

The "Sediment, Nutrients, and Temperature TMDLs and Water Quality Improvement Plans for the Boulder-Elkhorn Planning Area" document was approved by the U.S. EPA on September 9, 2013 and is available on DEQ's Final TMDL Documents webpage under the "Upper Missouri" tab. Copies are also available at the Boulder, Butte, and Helena public libraries. Comments were received on the draft document during the public comment period and responses to comments are contained in Section 11.0 of the document.

 

Additional information about the document and assistance with water quality improvement projects can be found on the project homepage.

August 30, 2013 The nutrients, sediment, and temperature document has been submitted to EPA for approval. A notice will be posted when the document has been approved and is available on DEQ's website. Stakeholders will also receive email notification when the final document is available.
July 15, 2013 The public comment period for the nutrients, sediment, & temperature document closed last Friday, July 12. DEQ is reviewing comments and will be making final edits to the document in preparation for submittal to EPA. Responses to comments will be contained in Section 11 of the final document. A notice will be posted when the document is submitted for approval, and again when the document has been approved and posted to the DEQ website. Stakeholders will also receive an email notification when the final document is available.
July 1, 2013 The presentation given at the June 27 public meeting in Boulder has been posted in the "Meetings & Presentataions" table below. A project summary handout is also posted in the table. The handout also contains information on possible land management practices that could be implemented to improve water quality, and information on possible sources of funding to complete restoration projects and install livestock management features.
June 5, 2013

The public comment period for the "Sediment, Nutrients, and Temperature TMDLs and Water Quality Improvement Plans for the Boulder-Elkhorn Planning Area" document began today. The document and information on submitting comments is available on our website at: http://www.deq.mt.gov/pubcom.mcpx. Copies can also be found in the Helena, Boulder, and Butte public libraries. Comments are being accepted until 5 p.m. July 12. A public meeting will be held Thursday, June 27 at 6:30 p.m. in the court room of the Jefferson County Courthouse in Boulder. See the public notice for additional details, or contact Christina Staten (cstaten@mt.gov, 444-2836) if you have questions.

March 14, 2013

Presentations from Tuesday night's watershed advisory group meeting are posted in the table below. Information was handed out on possible land management practices that may improve water quality in the Boulder River watershed. The handout is posted below and also contains a table of potential funding sources and contacts.

 

Don't forget: if advisory group members would like to provide comments before the document is released for public comment, please send them to cstaten@mt.gov by Tuesday, March 26.

March 5, 2013 An advisory group meeting is scheduled for next Tuesday, March 12 at 7 p.m. at Boulder City Hall (304 N Main St). DEQ project managers will review key pieces of the nutrient, sediment, and temperature document and answer questions. Advisory group members interested in providing comments on the document may do so at the meeting or submit them to cstaten@mt.gov until Tuesday, March 26. The final draft document is expected to be released in April for a 30-day public comment period.
February 14, 2013 A draft of the sediment TMDLs has been posted to the Documents page for advisory group review and comment. All remaining document sections are expected to be be complete and posted in the next few weeks. An advisory group meeting will be held in Boulder after the full draft document is available.
January 14, 2013 The "Boulder-Elkhorn Metals TMDLs and Framework Water Quality Improvement Plan" was approved by EPA on December 20 and has been posted to DEQ's website at: http://deq.mt.gov/wqinfo/TMDL/finalReports.mcpx. Several comments were received during the public comment period and responses to comments can be found in Appendix G.
December 13, 2012

The metals document has been completed and submitted to EPA for approval. Once approved, the final document will be posted to our website at: http://deq.mt.gov/wqinfo/TMDL/finalReports.mcpx and a notice will be posted on this page. Several public comments were received, and responses to comments will be contained in Appendix G of the document.

 

Additional draft sections of the nutrients, sediment, and temperature document will not be available until after the holidays.

December 4, 2012 Tim Byron, the metals project manager, retired November 30, 2012. Dean Yashan, the DEQ TMDL section supervisor, is the new contact for the metals TMDLs. His contact information can be found at the bottom of this page.
November 26, 2012

Sections 1 - 4 of the nutrients, sediment, & temperature TMDL document have been posted to the Documents page for advisory group review and comment. These sections contain an introduction to the document and regulatory requirements of the TMDL process, a description of the Boulder River watershed, an overview of Montana's water quality standards and how they apply to this watershed, and a description of the components of a TMDL and the steps of TMDL development.

November 16, 2012

Metals TMDLs:

The public comment period has begun. The final, draft document can be found on DEQ's website at: http://deq.mt.gov/pubcom.mcpx. Comments may be submitted until 5 p.m. Thursday, December 6, 2012 either electronically at http://comment.cwaic.mt.gov/ or by mail to: Montana Dept. of Environmental Quality, PPA/WQPB, PO Box 200901, Helena, MT 59620-0901. A public meeting will be held on Monday, November 26 from 7 to 9 p.m. at Boulder City Hall. For additional information, see the Boulder-Elkhorn Metals TMDLs Public Notice.

 

Nutrients, Sediment, & Temperature TMDLs:

The temperature section of the document has been posted on the Boulder Elkhorn Documents page. Additional document sections and appendices will be posted within the next few weeks. An advisory group meeting to review this document has not yet been scheduled.

October 5, 2012

Delays have been encountered on this project. Below are updates on both TMDL documents.

 

Metals TMDLs:

The public comment period for this document is expected to begin toward the end of this month. A draft version of the document is still available for review on the Boulder Elkhorn Documents page.

 

Nutrients, Sediment, & Temperature TMDLs:

The draft nutrient TMDLs were posted on the Boulder Elkhorn Documents page today. The temperature TMDLs are expected to be availalbe at the end of the month, and the sediment TMDLs available during the beginning of November. The stakeholder review and comment period will continue for two weeks after all document sections have been posted, and an advisory group meeting will also be scheduled to discuss the full document. Additional details will be posted, once available. Please contact Christina Staten if you have any questions (cstaten@mt.gov, 406-444-2836).

August 7, 2012

Metals TMDLs:

A draft version of the document is posted on the Boulder-Elkhorn Documents page, and written stakeholder comments are currently being accepted. The public comment period for the metals document is expected to begin during the first half of September. Unless requested, an advisory group meeting to review the draft document prior to the public comment period will not be held.

 

Nutrients, Sediment, & Temperature TMDLs:

Portions of the draft document are being posted on the Boulder-Elkhorn Documents page for advisory group review and comment, as they are completed. A full draft is expected to be complete in September and an advisory group meeting will be held to review the document prior to the public comment period. The public comment period for the nutrients, sediment, and temperature document is expected to begin this fall.

July 10, 2012 A draft version of Appendix D of the nutrients, sediment, and temperature TMDL document has been posted on the Boulder-Elkhorn Documents page for advisory group review. This appendix contains a discussion of the reference condition approach and the targets being used for the sediment TMDLs. Other portions of the document will be posted as they become available.
June 14, 2012

A draft version of the Boulder-Elkhorn metals TMDL document has been posted on the Boulder Elkhorn Documents page for advisory group review. An advisory group meeting will be held in July to discuss the document, answer questions, and obtain feedback. A notice will be posted when the meeting date has been set.

The nutrients, sediment, and temperature TMDLs will be published in a separate document; a draft is expected to be complete by late July.

March 2, 2012 Presentations from the Feb 28, 2012 advisory group meeting have been posted below. Presentations are broken into pollutant categories and have been compressed for faster downloading. If you would like to review draft documents but have a slow internet connection, please contact Christina Staten at cstaten@mt.gov or (406) 444-2836 to have documents mailed to you on a CD. For additonal information about land management practices that help improve water quality and funding for these activities, please see our nonpoint source program webpage. Sampling data and source assessment reports can be found on the Documents page.

February 15, 2012

A watershed advisory group meeting will be held Tuesday, February 28, 2012 at City Hall in Boulder (located at 304 N Main St). The meeting will start at 7 p.m. and is expected to last 1 to 2 hours. DEQ will provide a project update, discuss sediment and temperature data collection methods, and review the results of the metals, nutrients, sediment, and temperature sampling. Contact Christina Staten (406-444-2836) if you would like additional information about the meeting.

 

 

MEETINGS & PRESENTATIONS

MEETING

PRESENTATIONS & HANDOUTS

October 8, 2009

DEQ met with the Boulder-Elkhorn TMDL Advisory Groups to provide an overview of the project, introduce project staff, and discuss results of the 2009 high-flow metals sampling.

October 8, 2009 Presentation (1.4 MB)

This presentation defines TMDLs, outlines the steps of TMDL development, provides a list of water quality impairments in the Boulder River watershed and reviews the results of the 2009 high-flow metals sampling.

February 28, 2012

DEQ held a watershed advisory group meeting to discuss metals, nutrient, sediment, and temperature water quality sampling and assessments that have taken place since 2009.

 

All presentations are less than 1 MB. Captions explaining the slide will pop up if you  hover over pictures and diagrams with your mouse.

What is a TMDL? (639 KB)

Sediment & Temperature Overview (656 KB)

Nutrient Water Quality Monitoring & TMDL Overview (652 KB)

Metals Water Quality Monitoring (999 KB)

 

Handout: Where to find additional water quality information (26 KB)

November 26, 2012

DEQ held a public meeting at City Hall in Boulder to review the final, draft metals TMDL document: "Boulder-Elkhorn Metals TMDLs and Framework Water Quality Improvement Plan" 

Metals Public Meeting Presentation (6.0 MB)

March 12, 2013

DEQ held a watershed advisory group meeting to review the draft nutrient, sediment, & temperature TMDLs. Presentations were given by Jim Bond & Lou Volpe.

Each presentation includes slides on how data was collected, how pollutant loadings were calculated, and what can be done to reduce the amount of each pollutant reaching the streams.

Draft Sediment TMDLs & Allocations (2.7 MB)

Draft Temperature TMDLs & Allocations (0.98 MB)

Draft Nutrient TMDLs & Allocations (0.8 MB)

 

Handout: Suggested Best Management Practices to use in the Boulder River Watershed & a Table of Possible Funding Sources and Contacts (0.2 MB)

June 27, 2013

DEQ held a public meeting in Boulder to review the nutrient, sediment, & temperature draft TMDL document. A presentation was given by Dean Yashan, Jim Bond, Lou Volpe, and Christina Staten.

June 2013 Presentation (6.08 MB)

The presentation defines a TMDL and outlines what TMDLs mean, reviews the sources of nutrients, sediment, and temperature water quality problems in the Boulder River watershed, summarizes the the TMDLs for each of the pollutants, and reviews possible land management practices that may improve water quality in the watershed.

 

Handout: Project Summary with Information on Potential Land Management Practices that Could Improve Water Quality & Funding Sources

 

 

PROJECT CONTACTS

 

Role

Contact

Email

Phone

Project Coordinator

Christina Staten

cstaten@mt.gov 

(406) 444-2836

Project Manager for Metals TMDLs 1

Dean Yashan 1

dyashan@mt.gov

(406) 444-5317

Project Manager for Nutrients TMDLs

Lou Volpe

lvolpe@mt.gov

(406) 444-6742

Project Manager for Sediment & Temperature TMDLs

Dean Yashan 2

dyashan@mt.gov 

(406) 444-5317

DEQ Nonpoint Source Program

Contact for information & assistance on implementing water quality improvement projects

Ann McCauley

or 

Robert Ray

amccauley@mt.gov

 

rray@mt.gov 

(406) 444-9897

 

(406) 444-5319

Jefferson Valley Conservation District

 USDA Building, Whitehall, MT 

 

jvmh57@questoffice.net

(406) 287-7875

1. Tim Byron was the metals project manager; he retired from DEQ in November of 2012. Dean is the DEQ TMDL section supervisor.

2. Jim Bond was the sediment and temperature project manager. Jim as left DEQ; Dean is the TMDL section supervisor.

 

 


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Page Released: February 15, 2012

Last Updated: December 11, 2013