Effectiveness of Best Management Practices for Bacteria Removal Developed for the Upper Mississippi River Bacteria TMDL

This literature review is intended to assist in guiding the selection of the most practical and effective implementation strategies to improve water quality in the Upper Mississippi River Bacteria Total Maximum Daily Load project area. The literature review evaluated research findings regarding the effectiveness of various best management practices to reduce bacteria loading to surface waters. The best management practices evaluated through literature were: wetland treatment systems, wet and dry detention ponds, biofiltration/filtration practices, hydrodymanic and manufactured devices, vegetated buffers/filter strips and swales, livestock riparian access control, manure management and pollution prevention and source controls.
Pollution prevention and source control are recommended as methods to reduce the load of bacteria to be managed by constructed best management practices and to limit the potential for bacteria to be transported to receiving waters. Of the best management practices reviewed in this study, wetland treatment systems, wet retention ponds, biofiltration/filtration practices, wide filter strips on permeable soils, and limitations on livestock access to riparian areas were identified as the practices that appear to have the most potential for effective reduction of bacteria loads. However, all of the methods reviewed display a level of variability in treatment effectiveness and careful consideration of design is necessary.