Rock River Fecal Coliform and Turbidity TMDL Implementation Plan

In 2005, Minnesota State University-Mankato Water Resource Center received funding to complete a Total Maximum Daily Load Assessment for the bacteria and turbidity impaired reaches of the Rock River. EPA approved the TMDL assessment in April 2008. Section 2 of this plan summarizes the findings of the TMDL assessment; the full report can be found online at www.pca.state.mn.us. Throughout the project, a technical committee assisted in providing input and information. It was important to the Technical Committee to engage the public in the process. This was completed through meetings, newsletters and newspaper articles. A thirteen-member Advisory Committee was formed from stakeholder organizations and volunteers that were solicited at public meetings. The Advisory Committee and the Technical Committee met three times in six months to determine the best practices to correct the impairments of the Rock River. Appendix A contains all information regarding the stakeholder process including agenda, minutes and handouts from each of the meetings. Committee members were also asked to suggest direct action items to address these areas. The committees also discussed priority areas and determined that the entire watershed should be focused on but the Elk Creek is the only subwatershed that is shown to be impaired. Sections 4 and 5 of this plan discuss the potential implementation strategies that are available for reducing bacteria and turbidity. Section 6 is the direct result of the ballot voting and discussion of action items. Roles and responsibilities will change with each action item depending on the project and are explained in Section 7 along with a listing of the project partners. Section 8 lays out a ten-year timeline for the project. Probability of successfully completing the action items in the plan will depend on funding. The success of this plan will also rely on the adaptability of this plan (Section 9). An annual meeting of the Technical and Advisory Committee is planned to review project progress, water quality data and new information that may develop