Dedicated funding accelerates water assessment, restoration

In the alphabet soup of government acronyms, TMDL is not as familiar as say, FBI or DNR. But for people concerned about water quality, TMDL is about as basic as ABC.

TMDL stands for Total Maximum Daily Load. A TMDL is defined as the maximum quantity of a pollutant that a water body can receive and still meet water quality standards.

Brian Johnson, Metropolitan Council senior environmental scientist, uses a Van Dorn water sampling bottle to gather samples from deep in Big Carnelian Lake, Washington County. Data derived from water quality monitoring activities is critical to water assessment and TMDL studies.

After passage of the federal Clean Water Act in 1972, each river, stream and lake in Minnesota was assigned a designated use – like aquatic life, recreation, drinking water and other uses, explained Judy Sventek, environmental planning analyst with Metropolitan Council Environmental Services. Each use has associated water quality standards.

“A water is considered impaired if it doesn’t meet its designated use and the associated water quality standards,” Sventek said. “Then it goes on the state’s impaired waters list, and under federal and state law, must become the subject of a TMDL study.”

A TMDL study is a detailed assessment that determines how much pollutant is present in an impaired water, the sources of the pollutant and what pollutant reductions will be needed to restore the water to health. The pollutants may come from specific sources – like an industrial source or wastewater treatment plant – or from more diffuse sources, like stormwater runoff from agricultural land or from urban development.

With passage of the Clean Water, Land and Legacy Amendment by voters in 2008, funding for water quality monitoring, assessment and protection got a long-term boost. People around the state will be hearing a lot more about TMDLs in the next decade.

Carver County: Ahead of the curve on TMDL studies

Map of Carver County showing watersheds and TMDL study locations.

TMDL studies have been completed on 13 lakes and 3 streams in Carver County.

In 1996, Carver County received a grant from the Metropolitan Council to start a stream monitoring program as part of a larger effort to monitor and reduce nonpoint-source pollution in the Minnesota River basin. Three tributaries to the Minnesota – Carver, Silver and Bevens Creeks – flow through Carver County. The Council has been monitoring the creek outlets since 1989, but the grant allowed the county to set up additional monitoring sites throughout the watersheds.

That started a cooperative relationship between the county’s Planning and Water Management unit and the Council that continues to this day, said Greg Aamodt, environmental scientist with Carver County. The Council has provided technical assistance to the county on several projects, including the county’s current TMDL study for turbidity in the three creeks.

The Council’s Citizen-Assisted Monitoring Program (CAMP) was also critical to providing data for TMDL studies already completed by Carver County on 13 lakes in the watersheds. Through CAMP, citizens take water quality measurements and collect water samples biweekly from mid-April to mid-October on lakes throughout the metro area for analysis by the Council’s water quality lab. More about water quality monitoring.

Next step: Cleanup

Writing up the TMDL study is only the beginning, Aamodt said. Once the study is reviewed and approved by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) and the federal Environmental Protection Agency, the county develops an implementation plan to clean up the water bodies.

For example, the county’s TMDL study on fecal coliform bacteria in the three creeks identified failing septic systems as a major source of the problem. The implementation plan includes a program to assist homeowners to upgrade those systems. The county offers a $2,000 grant and a 10-year, low-interest loan to “help lighten the financial blow,” Aamodt said.

Federal law requires extensive citizen involvement in reviewing the TMDL studies as well as in developing and carrying out the implementation plan, Aamodt said. A recent federal grant allowed the county to hire a staff member at the Carver County Soil and Water Conservation District to “go door to door and sell the program” to residents.

Clean Water Legacy funds accelerate studies and clean-up

Mike Ahlf at water monitoring station along Nine Mile Creek

Mike Ahlf, Council environmental technician, checks equipment at the Council’s water monitoring station along Nine Mile Creek in Bloomington.

In 2006, the Minnesota Legislature passed the Clean Water Legacy Act, which boosted funding on a one-time basis for the development of TMDL studies and implementation plans on lakes, streams and rivers statewide. Voter approval of a state constitutional amendment in November 2008 secured that funding effort through 2034.

One-third of the proceeds of the new three-eighths-cent sales tax, which went into effect on July 1, are dedicated to the state’s Clean Water Fund. For the 2010-2011 biennium, the MPCA and several other state agencies, along with the Metropolitan Council and the University of Minnesota, will received a total of nearly $151 million for:

Water quality monitoring and assessment
TMDL studies and implementation
Surface water protection and restoration
Groundwater assessment and drinking water protection
Agricultural best management practices loans to communities
Loans and grants for small community wastewater treatment systems
Phosphorus reduction grants
Other water quality programs.

With the increased funding, the MPCA and its partner agencies will assess each of the state’s 81 major watersheds on a 10-year cycle. TMDL studies will be completed and implementations plans developed soon after assessments are completed.

“This comprehensive, predictable kind of planning approach would not have been possible without the dedicated funding,” said Jeff Risberg, Impaired Waters Coordinator for the MPCA.