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Assessment Comments

Stream use assessment in Muscatine County.

Basis for Assessment

Used a review of the field sheet from the August 1991 DNR stream use assessment in Muscatine County to downgrade the assessment of support of the Class B(LR) aquatic life uses from FST to PS due to (1) relatively poor fish community diversity (5 species from 2 families) for streams in the Mississippi River portion of the Southern Iowa Rolling Loess Prairies subecoregion and (2) presence of less than a majority of the expected fish taxa (4 of 8) for streams in this subregion.   Follow-up monitoring is needed to update this assessment, to determine the status of the aquatic communities and habitats, and to determine the degree to which the Class B(LR) aquatic life uses may be impaired.   The only significant impact to the physical characteristics of this stream identified on the field sheet are frequent areas of streambank erosion.