Deer Creek/Nemadji River Turbidity TMDL Project
Documents:
Deer Creek Total Maximum Daily Load Data Summary Report (2010)
Deer Creek/Nemadji River Turbidity TMDL Monitoring Plan (2010 Update)
Deer Creek/Nemadji TMDL Summary of Existing Data (2008)
Stewardship Committee Meetings:
(Slide Presentations will be available on the website for three months after each meeting)
Public Outreach and Volunteering:
Newsletters:
Volunteering:
Conservation Practices in the Nemadji Watershed
The Nemadji River Basin is featured in the 2008 report by
"National Association of Conservation Districts".
Click here to read the report
(Nemadji River Basin is featured on page 27)
Deer Creek and Nemadji River studies begin
Why is the water always brown? How harmful can that be? County residents have always been interested in their water resources and to answer these questions and more Carlton County Soil and Water Conservation District, in partnership with Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, has begun work on the Deer Creek/Nemadji River Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) study. Previous watershed studies identified high turbidity and sediment as significant impacts to water quality. The result of these studies was to “list” Deer Creek and Nemadji River on the Federal Clean Water Act (303) d list of impaired waters. An impaired waters designation requires completion of a TMDL study.
Turbidity or cloudiness of the water, and high sediment yields can be detrimental to fish and other aquatic life, and in this case, even shipping! Sediment degrades the quality of the spawning habitat and turbidity can affect feeding success. High sediment loads from the Nemadji River have also been a major contributor to sediment buildup in the Superior Harbor. Historically, about 33,000 tons of Nemadji River sediment has been dredged annually from Lake Superior Bay by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to maintain adequate depth for shipping traffic.
The TMDL process will complete a series of steps to ultimately define a “load” or the maximum amount of pollutant (in this case sediment) that a water body (Deer Creek and Nemadji River) can receive and still meet state water quality standards. Sources of sediment are identified along with the amount of reduction needed. Strategies for reducing sediment will be investigated and described in an implementation plan. The eventual goal is to reduce sediment sources such that all contributions will result in Deer Creek and Nemadji River meeting water quality standards.
Please contact Kirstin Swenson, Water Resource Coordinator, Carlton SWCD if you have any questions or comments at (218)384-3891. Karen Evens is the MPCA project manager and can be reached at (218)725-7730 or via internet at karen.evens@pca.state.mn.us
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