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Kootenai - Fisher TMDL Project

This version was saved 11 years, 11 months ago View current version     Page history
Saved by Christina Staten
on May 2, 2012 at 2:30:45 pm
 

Added waterbody location descriptions to impairment table

Project Contacts     Outreach     Documents


This page provides a general overview of the Kootenai – Fisher TMDL project. Here you will find a brief explanation on the purpose of the project and what it entails, a description of the project area and the included streams, as well as project contacts. You can find project updates and meeting announcements on the Kootenai – Fisher Project Outreach page. The links above will appear on each project page and can be used to navigate between the pages.

 

Page Contents


Other Kootenai - Fisher TMDL Project Pages:

Project Contacts

Project Outreach

Project Documents

 


 

Project Area

 

The Kootenai – Fisher TMDL project area encompasses the entire Fisher River watershed and a portion of the Kootenai River watershed. Majority of the project area is contained in Lincoln County, and includes the Town of Troy and the City of Libby. A very small portion of the project area lies in Flathead County.

 

     Kootenai - Fisher TMDL Project Area [Click on map to enlarge


 

Project Purpose

 

This project is not part of, or a result of, the superfund clean-up operations for the W.R. Grace vermiculite mine and asbestos contamination in Libby. For information regarding the superfund project, please see EPA’s Libby Asbestos webpage. This project is also not related to the permitting or development of an environmental impact statement for the Montanore Mine.

 

The state of Montana monitors its waters and conducts water quality assessments to determine if waterbodies are supporting their designated uses. Waterbodies in the state of Montana have been classified to designate what beneficial uses they must support. All waterbodies in the Kootenai-Fisher TMDL Project area must be maintained suitable to support the uses of: agricultural, industrial, recreational, and drinking water uses, as well as support of fish and aquatic life. Waters that are determined not to be supporting their designated uses are called impaired and are placed on Montana’s list of impaired waters. Impaired waterbodies and their associated probable causes and sources of impairment are published within Montana’s biennial Water Quality Integrated Report. Impaired waterbodies for this project are discussed below, in the next section. 

 

Montana’s state law, and the federal Clean Water Act that was established by Congress in 1972, require development of total maximum daily loads (TMDLs) for all waterbodies impaired by a pollutant (e.g., metals, nutrients, sediment, temperature). A TMDL is the maximum amount of a pollutant that a waterbody can receive and still meet water quality standards (think of a TMDL as a loading rate). TMDL development includes four main steps:

  • Further characterizing the impaired waterbody’s existing water quality conditions and comparing those conditions to Montana’s water quality standards. During this step, measurable target values are set to help evaluate the stream’s condition in relation to the applicable water quality standards.
  • Quantifying the magnitude of the pollutant contribution from each significant source
  • Determining the total allowable load of the pollutant to the waterbody (i.e., the TMDL)
  • Allocating the total allowable pollutant load into individual loads for each significant source (referred to as load allocations for nonpoint sources and wasteload allocations for point sources)

A TMDL document will be published for this project that will include information and results from each of these four steps. The document will also include recommended land management activities for improving water quality in this project area, and a monitoring strategy to evaluate progress toward attainment of water quality standards.

 

The TMDL planning process for this project incorporates a combination of water quality sampling and hydrologic modeling to further identify and quantify metals, nutrient, sediment, and temperature contributions from all significant sources to the streams identified in the table below. For more information about the development of TMDLs, please see the What is a TMDL? page on this site or download our pamphlet: Understanding the TMDL Process (580 kb).


 

Project Overview

 

There are 10 streams with metals, nutrients, sediment, and/or temperature water quality impairments that are being addressed as part of this project (see table below). Note that the Kootenai River is not included in this project. It is on Montana’s list of impaired waters as impaired for temperature; however this impairment will not be addressed until post 2014. Complete information on each stream’s probable impairments, causes, and sources can be found on DEQ’s Clean Water Act Information Center. Click on “Begin Search” and then select either “Fisher” or “Kootenai” from the TMDL Planning Area drop down list under Step 2. See the table below to determine which streams are found in each planning area.

 

WATERSHED

STREAM &

LOCATION DESCRIPTION

METALS IMPAIRMENTS

NUTRIENT IMPAIRMENTS

SEDIMENT IMPAIRMENTS

TEMPERATURE IMPAIRMENTS

Fisher River

Fisher River

Silver Butte/Pleasant Valley junction to mouth (Kootenai River)

X

 

 

 

Raven Creek

Headwaters to mouth (Pleasant Valley Fisher River)

 

X

X

 

Wolf Creek

Headwaters to mouth (Fisher River)

 

 

X

X

Kootenai River

Big Cherry Creek

Snowshoe Creek to mouth (Libby Creek)

X

 

 

 

Bristow Creek

Headwaters to the mouth at Lake Koocanusa

 

X

X

 

Lake Creek

Bull Lake outlet to mouth (Kootenai River)

X

X

X

 

Libby Creek

Just above Howard Creek to the Hwy 2 bridge

X

 

 

 

Libby Creek

Hwy 2 bridge to mouth (Kootenai River)

 

 

X

 

Quartz Creek

Headwaters to confluence with Kootenai River

 

 

X

 

Snowshoe Creek

Cabinet Wilderness boundary to mouth (Big Cherry Creek)

X

 

 

 

Stanley Creek *

Headwaters to confluence with Fairway Creek

X

X

 

 

*The Stanley Creek assessmenut unit (AU) is going to be extended to the confluence with Bull Lake, which will change the AU to include the entire length of the stream and not just the upper portion. This change will be made in the 2014 Integrated Report.

 

 

     Kootenai-Fisher Metals, Nutrient, Sediment, and Temperature Impaired Streams [click on map to enlarge

 

If you would like to see a larger version of each individual map, click on the links below:

Metals Impairments Map

Nutrient Impairments Map

Sediment & Temperature Impairments Map

 

 

Specific Metals & Nutrient Impairments:

STREAM

METALS IMPAIRMENTS

Big Cherry Creek

Zinc

Fisher River

Lead

Lake Creek

Cadmium, Copper, Lead, Mercury

Libby Creek

(just above Howard Creek to the Hwy 2 bridge)

Mercury

Snowshoe Creek

Cadmium, Zinc

Stanley Creek

Copper

 

STREAM

NUTRIENT IMPAIRMENTS

Bristow Creek

Nitrogen (Total)

Lake Creek

Nitrate / Nitrite (Nitrite + Nitrate as N)

Raven Creek

Chlorophyll-a, Nitrogen (Total), Phosphorus (Total),

 Nitrate / Nitrite (Nitrite + Nitrate as N)

Stanley Creek

Nutrient / Eutrophication Biological Indicators

 


 

Project Schedule & Documents

This project is anticipated to be complete by the end of 2013. A document will be written containing all of the TMDLs developed as part of this project, and a public comment period and public meeting will be held prior to project completion. Check the Kootenai-Fisher Project Outreach page for status and schedule updates. 

 

TMDL documents can be found on the Kootenai - Fisher TMDL Documents page. Planning documents, data summary reports, and assessment and modeling reports will be posted on this page as they become available.


 

Project Contacts

Please see the Kootenai – Fisher TMDL Project Contacts page.

 


Page Released: March 19, 2012

Last Updated: May 2, 2012