Section 319
              NONPOINT SOURCE  PROGRAM SOGGESS STORY
                                          .
Forestry Best Management Practices Improve Water Quality
Imnrnx/pH
1 1 upl UVWU
                                 Historic forestry activities impaired Lower Piper Creek and Upper
                                 and Lower Goat Creek_ prompting Montana to add these three
segments to its 1996 Clean Water Act section 303(d) list of impaired waters. Landowners collaborated
with federal and state agencies to implement forestry best management practices (BMPs) in Goat and
Piper creeks. Water quality improved, and in 2006 Montana removed Upper Goat Creek from the 303(d)
list for nutrients and Lower Piper Creek and  Lower Goat Creek for siltation.
Problem
                       Piper and Goat C
Piper and Goat creeks empty into the
Swan River in northwestern Montana
(Figure 1). Timber production is an
important economic resource and a
key source of sediment pollution in the
Swan River watershed.  Most of the
land is owned and managed by the U.S.
Forest Service, the Swan River State
Forest and Plum Creek Timber  Company
(PCTC). Timber activities that generated
sediment and nutrient pollution included
building forest roads, harvesting timber
from riparian areas, disturbing forest
ground, and removing trees and canopy
cover. Private developers contributed
additional pollution by disturbing ripar-
ian areas, encroaching on streams,
building septic systems and not ade-
quately maintaining private roads.

Montana Department of Environmental
Quality (MDEQ) added Piper Creek and
the entire length of Goat Creek to its
1996 303(d) list for partial support of
aquatic life  and cold-water fish. During
2002 revisions to the 303(d) list, MDEQ refined
the causes  of impairment to specify that nutri-
ents and suspended solids impaired a 9-mile
segment of Upper Goat Creek and that siltation
impaired both a 1-mile segment of Lower Goat
Creek and a 4-mile segment of Piper Creek.

In Upper Goat Creek,  MDEQ indicated that total
suspended  sediment and nutrient concentrations
exceeded the state standard, which requires
"no increases in these pollutants are allowed
above naturally occurring concentrations that will
render the waters harmful or create a nuisance
for its classified uses." The Goat Creek TMDL
established a total suspended solids (TSS) target
of 30 milligrams per liter (mg/L). This target was
based on reference streams in the Swan Lake
                                                              Flathead Indian Reservation
                                                              Mission MountainsWilderness

                                                              Swan River State Forest

                                                              Flathead National Forest

                                                              Plum Creek Timber Company Land

                                                              Other Private Land
                                                                   2 Miles
                 Figure 1. Map of the Piper Creek and Goat Creek watersheds.

                          drainage area, which have peak flow TSS values
                          in the 15 to 20 mg/L range, indicating a range of
                          naturally occurring conditions.

                          Increased erosion  caused nutrient concentra-
                          tions to rise as well. MDEQ analyzed nutrient
                          data from various sources, which indicated that
                          Upper Goat Creek nitrate levels ranged from
                          0.06 to 0.10 mg/L, and that nitrite + nitrate
                          levels were around 0.07 mg/L. Both estimates
                          exceeded background levels.

                          In 1989 MDEQ assessed Lower Goat Creek and
                          found elevated levels of sediment deposition
                          that contributed to an embedded substrate
                          and braiding of the stream channel. This seg-
                          ment of Goat Creek was impaired  by excess
                          siltation, particularly near the mouth, because
                          of logging road runoff that caused banks to

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            rapidly erode. In Piper Creek, the MDEQ stream
            reach assessment showed that fine sediment
            in the channel—mainly from timber harvest and
            roads—moderately impaired the creek. MDEQ
            found that 53 percent of the stream reach had
            a less-than-healthy riparian plant community
            because  of timber harvest.
           Project Highlights
           Water quality improvement efforts have
           been underway for the past 20 years. In 1989
           Montana adopted forestry BMPs. In  1991 the
           state enacted a Streamside Management Zone
           law, which limits the removal of riparian vegeta-
           tion for commercial timber harvest and the use
           of potentially harmful timber harvest practices
           near waterbodies.

           Swan River and several of its tributaries provide
           significant habitat for bull trout, a federally listed
           threatened species. In 1997 PCTC met with the
           U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to begin develop-
           ing the Native Fish Habitat Conservation Plan.
           Under this plan, PCTC agreed to upgrade old
           roads for which it has direct or shared respon-
           sibility to an improved erosion control standard
           by the end of 2015.

           In 2004 MDEQ completed a Water Quality Plan
           and Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs) for
           the Swan Lake Watershed. A key element of the
           plan is to reduce excess sediment delivery to
           streams from roads throughout the Swan Lake
           Watershed. PCTC installed BMPs on existing
           roads in the Goat and Piper Creek watersheds,
           including relief culverts and drivable drain dips
           that redirect sediment carried in snowmelt
                               or runoff from the road
                               to infiltration areas on
                               adjacent slopes. In addi-
                               tion, PCTC designed and
                               constructed new roads
                               with enhanced BMPs
                               that exceed existing state
                               rules and current BMP
                               standards.
Figure 2. Roadside catchments
capture sediment from runoff
and allow water to infiltrate and
sediment to settle out.
The U.S. Forest Service
added roadside drainage
catchments that accumu-
late runoff and sediment
on public lands (Figure 2).
The Montana Department
                            of Natural Resources and Conservation
                            (MDNRC) constructed road BMPs and imple-
                            mented a no-harvest buffer zone along a por-
                            tion of Goat Creek on Swan Lake State Forest
                            lands. MDNRC also  completed other drainage
                            work in a major tributary to Goat Creek.
                                                          Results
                            This multifaceted approach has successfully
                            decreased concentrations of suspended solids
                            and nutrients in Goat and Piper creeks over time.
                            In fact, when MDEQ assessed water quality
                            as part of the 2004 TMDL, the data indicated
                            that Goat and Piper creeks met water quality
                            standards for TSS and nutrients. The impairment
                            indicators seen in earlier MDEQ stream assess-
                            ments were no longer obvious. Therefore,
                            although sediment and stream channel condi-
                            tions might not be pristine, MDEQ believes that
                            they are within the range of naturally occurring
                            and should no longer be considered impaired.
                            Moreover, the periphyton results do not raise
                            sediment or habitat concerns.

                            PCTC performed additional water quality
                            assessments and estimated that road improve-
                            ment efforts have led to a 29 percent and 71
                            percent decrease in sediment delivered to Goat
                            and Piper creeks, respectively, helping the
                            streams  meet the TMDL TSS target of 30 mg/L.
                            As a result, in 2006 MDEQ removed Lower
                            Piper and Lower Goat Creeks from the state's
                            303(d) list for siltation and Upper Goat Creek for
                            nutrients.
                            Partners and Funding
Approximately $409,000 in EPA section 319
grants supported the Swan Ecosystem Center.
The center coordinated the Swan Watershed
Group and Technical Advisory Group, which
helped to develop the Swan Lake Watershed
TMDL. Organizations that helped to restore and
monitor water quality include MDEQ, MDNRC;
Flathead Basin Commission; Flathead Biological
Station, University of Montana; Flathead
National Forest;  Friends of the Wild Swan;
Lake County; Missoula County; Montana Fish,
Wildlife and Parks; PCTC; Swan Ecosystem
Center; The Trust for Public Land and others.
The U.S. Forest Service, MDNRC, and PCTC
have funded their own restoration projects in
Goat and Piper creeks.
I
                U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
                Off ice of Water
                Washington, DC
                EPA841-F-09-001A
                February 2009
                                                          For additional information contact:
                            Robert Ray
                            Montana Department
                              of Environmental Quality
                            Phone: 406-444-5319
                            Ann Dahl
                            Swan Ecosystem Center
                            Phone: 406-754-3137
                             Brian Sugden
                             Plum Creek
                              Timber Company
                             Phone: 406-892-6368

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