Lower Otter Tail River Turbidity Total Maximum Daily Load Report

The Otter Tail River is located in west-central Minnesota with the mouth of the river at Breckenridge, Minnesota (Fig. 1). The confluence of the Otter Tail River and the Bois de Sioux River at Breckenridge is considered to be the headwaters of the Red River of the North. The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) has listed a stream reach in the Lower Otter Tail River (LOTR) as an impaired water for exceeding the turbidity standard for aquatic life, which is currently set at 25 Nephelometric Turbidity Units (NTU). The 2004 303(d) list identifies the impaired reach as the "Otter Tail River, Breckenridge Lake to Bois de Sioux River", Assessment Unit ID (AUID) 09020103-502. This 8.2 mile segment of the Otter Tail River is the last reach downstream before the confluence with the Bois de Sioux River and will be referred to as the Lower Otter Tail River (LOTR) in this report.