Air and Water Pollution - Quiz 8

TDEC WQ Monitoring

Tennessee takes watershed based approach to water quality monitoring

• watersheds divided into 5 groups
  

5 Year Plan

year 1 (planning and data review)

• existing data/reports compiled; used to describe current conditions/status

year 2 (monitoring)

• field data collected; follow up collection occurs about a year later

year 3 (assessment)

• monitoring data used to designate status of streams/lakes by comparing data to wqs

year 4 (TMDL development)

• tmdls developed to determine pollutant loads; allowable pollutants allocated among sources within watershed

year 5 (permitting)

• issuance.expiration dates of permits are synchronized based on watersheds

stakeholder watershed meetings

• meetings held in each watershed as way to bring together.engage different agencies; seek collaborative effort opportunities

Reports

results of watershed assessment are public

two reports - 303d and 305b

• 303d is annual; 305b is biannual

7 Uses For Each Water Body Segment

domestic water supply

industrial water supply

fish and aquatic life

recreation

irrigation

livestock watering and watering

navigation

Recreation v Fish and Aquatic Life Sampling

recreation

• pathogen sampling

  • use e. coli to test for fecal pollution

• fish tissue sampling

  • fish flesh, either whole fish or fillet

fish and aquatic life

• habitat assessment

• macroinvertebrate sampling

  • biorecon

  • semi quantitative single habitat (SQSH)

Sampling

biology sampling

• used to assess for fish and aquatic life

biorecon

• quick, broad scale screening tool. used when no previous data has been obtained/where bio and env conditions believed to remain same

semi quantitative single habitat (SQSH)

• more precise and thorough; used for de listing of streams and permitting process

Biorecon

quick, broad scale screening tool. used when no previous data has been obtained/where bio and env conditions believed to remain same

4 habitats sampled

• riffle, run rock, pool rock, macrophytes, woody debris, leaf packs, sediment, undercut banks, tree roots

• about 0.5m of each habitat sampled

• all unique taxa samples and preserved in etoh

• identify to either family or genus at lab

Biorecon Scoring

3 metrics (can receive a 1, 3 or 5)

• taxa richness (total species diversity)

• EPT richness (ephemeroptera, plecoptera, trichoptera)

• intolerant taxa (intolertant status based on NCBI score

scores

• equal/less to 5 = impaired

• 7-9 = ambiguous

• greater/equal 11 = non impaired

*if either 5/below or 11/above; we are finished

• if 7-9, SQSH needed

EPT

ephemeroptera, plecoptera, trichoptera

• e/p = intolerant

• t = tolerant

Reference Conditions

reference conditions based on your ecoregion

• all habitat data is compared within one region

score values calculated based on ecoregions

7 Metrics (Biometric Score)

taxa richness

ept richness

%ept - cheum (tolerant species; do NOT want to find)

Macroinvertebrate Sampling

*what we will be doing

collecting critters, counting them, grouping them to make assessment on stream with two main sampling protocols

• biorecon

• semi quantitative single habitat (SQSH)