Yellow Medicine River Watershed Total Maximum Daily Load

Document
Description
Section 303(d) of the Clean Water Act (CWA) provides authority for completing Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs) to achieve state water quality standards and/or designated uses. The TMDL establishes the maximum amount of a pollutant a waterbody can receive on a daily basis and still meet water quality standards. The TMDL is divided into wasteload allocations (WLAs) for point or permitted sources, load allocations (LAs) for non-point sources (NPSs) and natural background plus a margin of safety (MOS). This TMDL report addresses impairments for 16 stream reaches consisting of 16 Escherichia coli (E. coli) and 3 turbidity (TSS) impairments, as well as 7 lakes for nutrient eutrophication impairments in the Yellow Medicine River Watershed. Addressing multiple impairments in one TMDL report is consistent with Minnesota's Water Quality Framework that seeks to develop watershed wide protection and restoration strategies rather than focus on individual reach impairments. The Yellow Medicine River Watershed covers approximately 707,000 acres in the Western Corn Belt Plains (WCBP) and Northern Glaciated Plains (NGP) ecoregions and drains portions of five counties (Lac qui Parle, Lincoln, Lyon, Redwood, and Yellow Medicine) in the Southwest Minnesota River Basin.
Date Issued
2016-11
Number of Pages
182
Decade
Publisher
Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (St. Paul, Minnesota)
Publication Series
Rights Holder
Minnesota Pollution Control Agency
Rights Management
Public Domain