Assessment Comments
Assessment is baesd on: (1) results of monthly monitoring from 2004 through 2006 at the IDNR/UHL ambient city monitoring station located downstream from Mason City (STORET station 10170003) and (2) results of U.S. EPA/IDNR fish tissue (RAFT) monitoring east of Mason City in 2004. The assessment is also based, in part, on historical water quality studies conducted for the Lehigh Portland Cement Company.
Basis for Assessment
[Note: Prior to the current (2008) Section 305(b) cycle, this river segment was designated only for Class B(WW) aquatic life uses, including fish consumption uses. Due to changes in Iowa’s surface water classification that were approved by U.S. EPA in February 2008 (see http://www.iowadnr.com/water/standards/files/06mar_swc.pdf), and due to results of an Use Attainability Analysis, this segment is also now designated for Class A1 (primary contact recreation) uses. This segment remains designated for warmwater aquatic life use (now termed Class B(WW1) uses), and for fish consumption uses (now termed Class HH (human health/fish consumption uses).]
SUMMARY: The Class A1 (primary contact recreation) uses are assessed (monitored) as "not supported" due to levels of indicator bacteria that violate state water quality criteria. The Class B(WW1) aquatic life uses are assessed (monitored) as "fully supported” based on results of ambient water quality monitoring from 2004 through 2006. Fish consumption uses remain assessed (monitored) as "fully supported" based on results of fish contaminant monitoring in 2004. The sources of data for this assessment include (1) results of monthly monitoring from 2004 through 2006 at the IDNR/UHL ambient city monitoring station located downstream from Mason City (STORET station 10170003) and (2) results of U.S. EPA/IDNR fish tissue (RAFT) monitoring east of Mason City in 2004. The assessment is also based, in part, on historical water quality studies conducted for the Lehigh Portland Cement Company.
EXPLANATION: The Class A1 primary contact recreation uses are assessed (monitored) as "not supported" based on results of ambient monitoring for indicator bacteria (E. coli). Due to recent changes in Iowa’s Water Quality Standards, Iowa’s assessment methodology for indicator bacteria has changed. Prior to 2003, the Iowa WQ Standards contained a high-flow exemption for the Class A criterion for indicator bacteria (fecal coliforms) designed to protect primary contact recreation uses: the water quality criterion for fecal coliform bacteria (200 orgs/100 ml) did not apply "when the waters [were] materially affected by surface runoff." Due to a change in the Standards in July 2003, E. coli is now the indicator bacterium, and the high flow exemption was eliminated and replaced with language stating that the Class A criteria for E. coli apply when Class A1, A2, or A3 uses “can reasonably be expected to occur.” Because the IDNR Technical Advisory Committee on WQ Standards could not agree on what flow conditions would define periods when uses would not be reasonably expected to occur, all monitoring data generated for E. coli during the assessment period, regardless of flow conditions during sample collection, will be considered for determining support of Class A uses for purposes of Section 305(b) assessments and Section 303(d) listings.
The geometric mean level of indicator bacteria (E. coli) in the 24 samples collected during the recreational seasons of 2004 through 2006 (340 orgs/100ml) exceeds the Iowa Class A1 water quality criterion of 126 orgs/100ml. Sixteen of the 24 samples (67%) exceeded Iowa’s single-sample maximum criterion of 235 orgs/100 ml. According to U.S. EPA guidelines for Section 305(b) reporting and according to IDNR’s assessment/listing methodology, if the geometric mean level of E. coli is greater than the state criterion of 126 orgs/100 ml., the primary contact recreation uses should be assessed as "not supported" (see pgs 3-33 to 3-35of U.S. EPA 1997b).
The Class B(WW1) aquatic life uses are assessed as “fully supported” based on results of IDNR/UHL water quality monitoring downstream from Mason City (STORET station 10170003). Monitoring at this station from January 2004 through December 2006 showed no violations of Class B(WW1) water quality criteria for dissolved oxygen, pH, or ammonia-nitrogen in the approximately 35 samples collected, for pesticides in the nine samples collected, or for toxic metals in the 14 samples collected. Although these results suggest "full support" of the Class B(WW1) aquatic life uses, the results of water quality studies conducted in 1994 and 1995 for the Lehigh Portland Cement Company showed relatively low diversity of the fish community downstream from Mason City. The results from these studies continue to suggest the possibility of threats to full support of the aquatic life uses within the Mason City urban/industrial area. These studies are now quite old (over 10 years), and their ability to characterize current water quality conditions is doubtful. Follow-up monitoring is needed to better determine the status of the aquatic communities of this reach of the Winnebago River and to determine whether the Class B(WW1) uses may be impaired.
Fish consumption uses remain assessed (monitored) as "fully supported" based on results of U.S. EPA/IDNR fish tissue (RAFT) monitoring east of Mason City in 2004. The composite samples of fillets from common carp and northern pike had low levels of contaminants. Levels of primary contaminants in the composite sample of common carp fillets were as follows: mercury: 0.136 ppm; total PCBs: 0.101 ppm; and technical chlordane: < 0.03 ppm. Levels of primary contaminants in the composite sample of northern pike fillets were as follows: mercury: 0.16 ppm; total PCBs: 0.09 ppm; and technical chlordane: < 0.03 ppm.
The existence of, or potential for, a fish consumption advisory is the basis for Section 305(b) assessments of the degree to which Iowa’s lakes and rivers support their fish consumption uses. Prior to 2006, IDNR used action levels published by the U.S Food and Drug Administration to determine whether consumption advisories should be issued for fish caught as part of recreational fishing in Iowa. In an effort to make Iowa’s consumption more compatible with the various protocols used by adjacent states, the Iowa Department of Public Health, in cooperation with Iowa DNR, developed a risk-based advisory protocol. This protocol went into effect in January 2006 (see http://www.iowadnr.gov/fish/news/consump.html for more information on Iowa’s revised fish consumption advisory protocol). Because the revised (2006) protocol is more restrictive than the previous protocol based on FDA action levels; fish contaminant data that previously suggested “full support” may now suggest either a threat to, or impairment of, fish consumption uses. This scenario, however, does not apply to the fish contaminant data generated from the 2004 RAFT sampling conducted in this assessment segment: the levels of contaminants do not exceed any of the new (2006) advisory trigger levels, thus suggesting no justification for issuance of a consumption advisory for this waterbody.
