Beach Closing and Body Contact (BUI #7) and Degradation of Aesthetics (BUI #8) Preliminary Workgroup Meeting

Tuesday, February 24, 2004
6:30 - 8:30 pm
DeWitt-Seitz 3rd floor conference room

Attending: Heidi Bauman, Kay McKenzie, Becky Meyer, Nate Meyer, Diane Thompson

• review of contents of folder
- Calendar/timeline: August/September 2004 forward restoration goals to EPA.
- Goals of RAP
- Historical Background
- Development of the St. Louis River Remedial Action Plan (RAP)
- Problems in the St. Louis River AOC Identified in the Stage I RAP
- Map: Shows AOC and some selected sites within it. AOC includes the Nemadji, Cities of Superior, Duluth, Cloquet, and the nearshore waters of Lake Superior.
- Restoration Goals and Milestones worksheet: This is what we will be submitting to EPA.
- BUI Rational for Removing from the Impairment List: This is what we are trying to develop tonight.
- Workgroup Meeting Schedule
- Agenda
- General Guidelines for Restoration Goal Development
* Might recognize deficiencies in BUIs but won't be editing them.
* Restoration Goals are advisory in nature.

• BUI #7 Beach Closing and Body Contact

• IJC Criteria: An impairment will be listed when waters, which are commonly used for total-body contact or partial-body contact recreation, exceed standards, objectives, or guidelines for such use.

• SLR RAP Rational for Listing: Water quality data indicate that improvements have been made in the St. Louis River and bay since the late 1970's. However, there are still sources of potential microbial contamination. Sewage bypasses have occurred into the Area of Concern in both Minnesota and Wisconsin during 1990 and 1991 storm events. In addition, localized problems with microbial contamination could occur due to discharge of inadequately treated wastewater by marine traffic. Because of the sewage bypasses in both Minnesota and Wisconsin, body contact recreation is an impaired use.

* Do we still have problems with sewage bypasses/storm events and inadequately treated wastewater from marine traffic?
- Seem to still have a problem with storm events.
- No discharge isn't realistic. Could always have a lightning strike at a lift station or an unlikely event such as this, but we could do better than we are at the moment.

* Upgrading lift stations is a good milestone.
- Backup generators for power outages.
- Duluth is planning on upgrading a certain number of lift stations per year (2 each year, 20 total stations = 10 year plan).
- Lift station 6 in Superior has significant overflows. This is the only station in Superior that needs upgrading at this time. A holding pond is being discussed to be added to hold overflow till it can be treated. Superior is flatter than Duluth so lift stations aren't as big of a problem.

* Superior has three CSO (combined sewage overflow) ponds. In a large storm event, overflow is directed to these ponds (3-4 times a year). Mostly stormwater goes into these ponds, but a little sewage is there so ponds are treated before being discharged.
- Some of Superior has combined sewers. Some have separate.
- Last overflow in Superior - 3 years ago?
- Another stormwater pond is being built in South Superior now.

* Oliver and Fond du Lac are connected to WLSSD now so fewer problems with septic systems in those areas. Grinder pump is still a problem there.

* Gary is building a holding pond.

* Milestones look ok?

* Alternative power on Superior lift stations hasn't been approved yet.

* Changes in zoning - send to Jesse Schomberg to flesh out.
- Less paved parking lots, rention ponds, etc.
- What changes would be beneficial?

* MN has 13-14 beaches / WI has 10 beaches
- beach = public access to water, fishing piers, boat ramps
- swimming, wading, kayaking, canoeing, boating, fishing = body contact with water
- Heidi Bauman/Melissa Rauner, MPCA 2003 study
- 10 beaches had advisories
- 1 long term advisory (month), 3 one day advisories, 2 two day advisories, 1 three day advisory
- Out of 58 days of advisories, 49 of them were at one site (new Duluth boat club on 14th St).
- May want to say public access points and beaches in the AOC instead of trying to give number of beaches. What if new beaches and access points are built?

* Consistent and timely beach testing is needed.
- How often is consistent?
- Didn't use to test at all. Now do once a year.
- What time of year testing is done matters as well.

* E. coli bacteria
- Bird droppings, dog droppings, etc. contribute to higher bacteria counts.
- Bacteria can take root in soil. Waves stir up soil and rerelease bacteria into water.
- E. coli doesn't make you sick. ItÕs just an indicator of the potential for bacteria that can make you sick.
- It's easy to test for E. coli presence.
- A high bacteria count might not mean that humans will get sick. It could be dog or bird bacteria that wouldn't affect a human as much.

* Maybe the number of people who get sick from swimming should be a milestone or goal?
- Would have to get sick enough to go to doctor.
- Then doctor would have to report it.
- Doctor would also have to rule out food which is more common that getting sick from swimming.
- Should we rule this out as too hard to monitor?
- Maybe leave it in? Very obvious indicator if 50 people all get sick from swimming in the same spot.

* Do we have enough info to set numbers and percentages? Need goals to shoot for.

* Each beach is different.
- Almost need a different model for each beach.
- Turbidity, wave action, temperature, etc. all affect monitoring.

* Is there a better indicator than E. coli?
- Not at this time.
- Would need money to research one.

* What if we get rid of sewage but still have beach closings?
- Can we mandate higher standards than natural components?
- Always will be some public effect (boats, dogs, etc).
- Some AOCs are saying we aren't any worse than other AOCs so can delist.

* Public education
- Brochures, web pages, news stations, signing, etc.
- There are no portable toliets on either Wisconsin Point or Minnesota Point.
- There used to be garbage containers out, but in two days they were gone.
- Can educate easier on narrow campaigns. Easier than a big topic like Earth Day.
- Need to control social behavior.
- Beach closings is a hot issue at the moment. It would be a good time to educate.
- Clean up after dogs. Clean up trash on beach. Stop feeding gulls and geese.
- Both Duluth and Superior will have to do a stormwater program. A big part of that is education.
- Need to monitor behavior change not just educational material going out.
- At least half the people in Duluth/Superior area are tourists. Need to reach them as well although it is hard.
- Maybe can organize community litter pickup groups.

* Milestones:
- Behavior Change
- Beach Testing

* May have lofty goals that we want to achieve, but may have to delist before we reach them. Need to write down delisting goal.
- Ultimate goal = zero beach closings

* Beaches being safe is a family issue.
- Positive community idea.
- Safe, family recreation.
- Safe beaches = more recreation spots for families to spend time together.

* Delist when we reach the restoration goal. Milestones are steps on path to restoration goal.

* Are we at where we want to be to delist?
- Have made significant progress since 1970s. River is visibly cleaner.
- Not quite at where we need to be to delist though.

* Goal?
- All citizens (public and families) can visit beaches and recreate freely with zero chance of (human?) sewage related illness. No bacteria (pathogen?) levels that would cause beach to be unsafe.
- No pathogen levels that would cause a beach or public access point to river to be unsafe to bodily contact during recreation activities.

* Will never get back to natural.
- Humans are here along with pets, farm animals, etc.

* Don't have many illnesses like cholera anymore.
- Not in human digestive tracts.
- We treat water before drinking.

* What is a realistic restoration goal?
- No municipal sewage discharges and overflows.
- Not realistic to say none.
- But can get a realistic number on sewage overflows (maybe from WLSSD).
- Goal = Limited amount of municipal sewage overflows.
- Milestone for goal = A plan is in place and active in Duluth for doing continual upkeep and maintenance on lift stations. City of Superior has a plan in place for putting in a new lift station at Station #6 and South Superior.
- Minimized sewage overflows.

* Septic tank inspections?
- MN state rules deal with designers, installers, pumpers, inspectors, etc. have to be licensed and bonded.
- MN counties have individual ordinances on what goes in ground. Permitting comes from them. Pretty consistent across state.
- No MN county yet has a yearly fee and inspectors that come out each year to check for cracks, etc. or make your pump every three years.
- WLSSD is supposed to do things with septics. St. Louis County ends up dealing with most.
- WI state law (POWTS = private onsite waste treatment system)
- UW extension experts are being invited here by Ashland, Bayfield, Douglas, and Iron County Land Conservation staff to educate citizens about this law.
- Within certain parameters, WI DNR can give permission for you to pump your own septic.
- People don't want to allow inspection of their septic tanks or they pump their own tanks illegally because of monetary reasons or that they feel government has no right to intrude on their space. These beliefs are very deeply held.
- Many people don't equate puddle in backyard or smell in ditch with a septic problem.

* Milestones:
- Minimize sewage overflows.
- Septic tank inspections?
- Education/Behavioral change - don't change babies diapers in river, clean up after dogs, etc.
- Zoning component.

* St. Louis County did a few beach testing sites but now have had so many funding cuts that they can't continue.

* Where did BUI #7 come from? Didn't have beach closings before. There was no testing done.
- Billings Park was closed.
- Sewage overflows occurred, so assumed body contact with water was bad.

* Discharge of inadequately treated ballast water?
- There has been work done on this.
- Larger vessels had testing done by the Coast Guard. Coast Guard said no significant addition to fecal coliform bacteria of harbor.
- CME (marine exams) of smaller vessels in harbor.
- Is there a requirement for ships to pump out vs. dumping?
- US vessels have a dual treatment system on board for sanitary waste. Foreign don't have this requirement.

* Blending
- Federal rule on mixing/dilution period almost ended.
- Blending is basically discharging diluted sewage. Blend treated water with stormwater before discharging.
- During high flow periods, some sewage treatment systems are set up to send water around system instead of through it.
- If you send water through your system too quickly, you will end up flushing the good bacteria out of your treatment plant.
- Superior has holding ponds to hold water till it can be treated.

* Other AOCs
- Manistique River - Delisting Goal for Potential Restrictions on Body Contact : In general, when waters, which are commonly used for total body or partial body contact recreation do not exceed standards, objectives, or guidelines for such use. In Manistique, closing the one remaining combined sewer overflow will restore beneficial use. There have been no beach closings due to this potential overflow, since there are no swimming beaching in the Area of Concern.
- Get rid of beaches and don't test seem to be what they are saying.
- Saginaw River/Bay - Targeted Restored Condition: Three consecutive years of testing for E. coli bacteria, an indicator of harmful micro-organisms, confirm that the state water quality standards for full-body recreation are being met in the Saginaw River. No more than three swimming beaches are closed per year, and closures last no more than two days each in Saginaw Bay.
- Time frame is achievable. Specific time frame for testing.

* There may be some beaches that always have a high E. coli count.
- Ducks, geese, dogs, garbage, dark warm water, located right on boat channel, etc.
- So zero beach closings isn't realistic.
- May have high reading without any storm events.

• BUI #8 Degradation of Aesthetics

• IJC Criteria: An impairment will be listed when any substance in water produces a persistent objectionable deposit, unnatural color or turbidity, or unnatural odor (e.g. oil slick, surface scum).

• SLR RAP Rational for Listing: The aesthetic values of the St. Louis River AOC are impaired in some locations. A systematic collection of evidence and data is recommended to determine the specific locations of degraded areas and the sources and types of degrading materials (i.e. oil slicks, chemical and tar residues, taconite pellets on shorelines, rotting grain scum on water surface, etc.). Hog Island Inlet and Stryker Bay are two areas that have repeated reports of oil, chemical, and tar resides on the water's surface. Complaints have also been registered about smells emanating from the sediments and water of Newton Creek and Hog Island Inlet (MPCA, WDNR Complaint Logs 1980-1990). Shoreline aesthetics will be addressed separately and will be remediated through actions taken with riparian interests.

* Did not discuss.