Iowa DNR
Iowa DNR
ADBNet
Water Quality Assessments
Impaired Waters List

Granger Creek IA 01-TRK-127

mouth (Dubuque Co.) to county road bridge crossing in S24 T88N R2E Dubuque Co.

Cycle
2016
Release Status
Final
Overall IR
5 - Water is impaired or threatened and a TMDL is needed.
Trend
Unknown
Created
3/31/2016 4:25:57 PM
Updated
11/21/2016 1:15:33 PM
Use Support
Class A1
Recreation - Primary contact
Not Assessed
Class A2
Recreation - Secondary contact
Not Supported
Support Level
Not Supported
Impairment Code
5a - Pollutant-caused impairment. TMDL needed.
Cause Magnitude
High
Status
Continuing
Source
Unknown: Source Unknown
Source Confidence
N/A
Cycle Added
2012
Impairment Rationale
Geometric mean criterion exceeded
Data Source
Watershed project monitoring
TMDL Priority
Tier III
Class BWW2
Aquatic Life - Warm Water Type 2
Not Assessed
General Use
General Use water -
Not Assessed
Impairment Delistings
No delistings for this assessment cycle.
Documentation
Assessment Summary

The Class A2 (secondary contact recreation) uses remain assessed (monitored) as “not supported” due to violations of Iowa water quality criteria for indicator bacteria. The Class B(WW2) aquatic life uses remain “not assessed” due to the lack of water quality information upon which to base an assessment. The source of data for this assessment remains the results of monitoring in 2010 at Stations WQ-02, WQ-03, and WQ-04 of the Catfish Creek Watershed Project (quality assurance/project plan available upon request).

Assessment Explanation

The Class A2 (secondary contact recreation) uses remain assessed as "not supported" based on levels of indicator bacteria that exceeded state water quality criteria.  The geometric mean of indicator bacteria (E. coli) in the eight samples collected approximately every two weeks during the recreational season of 2010 at Site WQ-03 of the Catfish Creek Watershed Project (1,263 orgs/100 ml) exceeded the Iowa water quality criterion to protect secondary contact recreation uses (630 orgs/100 ml); two of the eight samples (25%) exceeded Iowa’s single-sample maximum criterion of 2,880 orgs/100 ml for secondary contact uses.  Similarly, at Station WQ-04, the geometric mean of E. coli in the 10 samples collected (1,430 orgs/100 ml) also exceeded the Class A2 geometric mean criterion.  Three of the 10 samples exceeded Iowa’s single-sample maximum criterion of 235 orgs/100 ml.  The geometric mean of the 11 samples collected at Site WQ-02 during 2010 (627 orgs/100 ml), however, was slightly below the Class A2 geometric mean criterion with only two of the 11 samples (18%) exceeding the Class A2 single-sample maximum criterion.  According to U.S. EPA guidelines for Section 305(b) reporting and IDNR’s assessment/listing methodology, if the geometric mean is greater than 630 orgs/100 ml., the secondary contact recreation uses are "not supported" (see pgs 3-33 to 3-35 of U.S. EPA 1997b).

Monitoring and Methods
Assessment Key Dates
5/12/2010
Fixed Monitoring Start Date
10/27/2010
Fixed Monitoring End Date
Methods
420
Indicator bacteria monitoring