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

Thursday, November 13, 2003
6:30 - 8:30 pm
DeWitt-Seitz 3rd floor conference room

Attending: Rick Gitar, Lori Gitar, Diane Thompson, Bill Majewski, Dan Talsma, Mike Costello, Kay McKenzie, Gail Gilliland, Alex Comb, Dorothy Anway, Will Munger

• RAP/AOC process overview - handout

• status of all Great Lakes AOCs according to IJC (ijc.org)
- IJC says the restoration work of AOCs is greater in U.S. than Canada. Two Canadian AOCs have been delisted, one Canadian/one U.S. in process of restoration.
- 7/10 Canadian AOCs have chosen natural restoration. No clear guidelines for selecting this.
- IJC wants U.S. government to provide the IJC with a schedule of restoration targets for each AOC within two years.
- Reason for these meetings. CAC board in May said would like to do meetings locally to decide restoration goals rather than having someone in Chicago or Washington decide them for us.

• review of contents of folder
- Calendar/timeline: 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.
- Preliminary Workgroup Meeting Schedule
- Agenda
- General Guidelines for Restoration Goal Development
* Might recognize deficiencies in BUIs but won't be editing them.
* Consensus - compromise is highly desirable.

• 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.

* Have we gone beyond the RAP Rational for Listing yet?
- No. Still many sewage overflows and beach closings.

* Superior plans to put in more lift stations and a wetland retention area in South Superior.

* There are other sources of contamination to the river besides sewage.
- Farms. So not limited to sewage overflows, etc.
- But our focus should be on sewage and what RAP Rational lists.

* Have percentages gone down significantly since BUI was listed?
- Have gone done (more lift stations) but still a problem.

* Obey had money for developing retention ponds and lift stations.

* East 2nd Street lift station needs improvement.

* Fond du Lac will soon be hooked up to WLSSD. Oliver is already hooked up. Some successes.

* North Shore is being hooked up?

* City and WLSSD sanitary district have a 5 year permit from state.
- They have to reduce overflows in this time.
- They have to put generators on lift stations.
- Holding ponds are being designed and built.

* Wish list on Superior: put alternative power on lift stations for bad weather and power outages. Wasn't enough money for this.

* Are successes enough to say progress has been made on bringing this impaired use off the list?
- No, not off list.

* What progress still needs to be made?
- Zoning? Clough Island.
- Voluntary inspections weren't enough in Duluth.
- Clay sewer pipes leak. Sump pumps won't help enough.

* Are the sewer bypasses that have occurred stormwater related?
- Mostly. Esko wasn't.
- 1 million gallon basin. Will work for only 2 hrs.

* A mechanical system can always break down.

* What does state require?
- MPDS: Permit for 5 years. Duluth just renewed.
- Superior halfway through cycle.

* Main focus is Superior/Duluth, but Cloquet is in AOC too.

* What are acceptable limits? Should we tie ourselves to what state requires?
- Not much we can do if our standard is higher than the states. No teeth.
- IJC says we should use current federal/state standards.

* Zero discharge is good but probably not realistic.

* What is an acceptable level?
- 2 beach closing a year out of 35 beaches good?
- Who is going to do testing? EPA isn't doing more. WLSSD will do some.
- Currently MN does not require beach testing so beach closing are inconsistent.
- No beach closing is good goal. However, cities might just say this isn't a beach anymore. Can't set standards too high.
- Milwaukee has accepted that 10% of sewer potentially going into water is ok.
- 10/35 beaches this year that were tested were closed.
- Say we set it at 1 or 5 beaches a year. What if someone gets contaminated?

* Ultimate goal is zero beach closings. But delisting/realistic goal should be 5% rather than the 25% closed it is now. Don't want goal too high or EPA will just reset the goal to something lower.

* How quickly does water recover from high coliform counts?
- Could be a goal. Small enough spills that beach recovers quickly.

* Need some more research and testing.
- What are other measures?
- Number of sick people = none reported this year.
- What if tourists though? Then they wouldn't be reported in this area. Need a way to measure this.

* What happens to coliform in water? Does it die?
- Research is starting to say that it doesn't disappear. It suspends itself in sediments, so may not be a good indicator of pathogens anymore.

* Need to set goals or areas we need info.

• 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.

* Has the rational that's been listed been taken care of?
- All sites are being worked on.
- Stryker Bay may have a solution fairly soon.

* Aesthetics affect recreational use, property values, and fishing.

* Newton Creek/Hog Island has just had significant progress in cleanup.
- 2300 cubic yards of contaminated sediments were removed.
- Still some left. Need some more money. But plans are to continue once funding is found.
- Ecological risk and human health risk are two separate issues.
- Completely cleaned up is a definition.
- Senators are both interested in this project.

* Some progresses have been made. Is it enough to take off BUI list?
- Persistent objectionable substances still there?
- Aesthetics = visible. Different from sediments.

* U.S. Steel wire pond was getting oil bubbles coming up.
- Carbon material makes bubbles. Heat in summer makes them rise.
- Pollutants ride up with bubble.
- Couldn't find anything in bubbles when they were tested.
- Lately there are no oil sheets so Styker Bay has last oil sheets.

* Aesthetics can be problematic. If its pretty people will start using area even if its still contaminated.

* Delisting rationale - persistent? Seems fairly close to aesthetics being ok and delistable.

* Say we delist this BUI and a problem comes up? What happens then?
- Different program takes over.
- Need to keep fluid?
- Seems like this would fall under new info and new issue.

* There have been three studies to identify hotspots.
- They haven't come up with any others besides the nine identified hotspots.
- Nine hotspots: U.S. Steel, SLRIDT, Slip C, MN Slip, Hog Island Inlet, Newton Creek, Koppers, Howard's Pocket, 21st Avenue West.
- Some work has been done on Newton Creek and SLRIDT site to clean up. Progress on a solution for cleaning up is being made (USX, Newton Creek, Stryker).

* Erie Pier has never been full. Hopefully will continue as a transfer spot.

* This BUI is good except for Stryker Bay. Should we table it till then?

* Goal: Once the blooms are gone from Stryker Bay, then this BUI can be taken off list.
* Will we continue to monitor progress on these sites?

* Progress has been made since this BUI was listed.
- Hog Island/Newton Creek.
- USX has on land operable permits.
- Styker Bay has plans in place on land.
- No more rotting grain scum. There is less grain on Rice's Point (fewer pheasants, rats).

* MN Slip didn't want MPCA to clean it up because then tourists and tour boats would realize there is a problem.

* Ultimate Goal: No oil slicks, unnatural colors or turbidity, rotting grain scum, unnatural odors, etc.

* Koppers
- WI Division of Health was interested.
- County changed one plot of land from business to residential near Koppers, and this shouldn't have happened. Court case on it now.
- WI DNR and WI Division of Health and Douglas County Health Dept. are working on Koppers.

* This BUI could be removed when there are no longer blooms at Stryker Bay and Koppers [soil?].
- BUI says water.

* Ultimate Goal: No beach closing and no degradation of aesthetics.
* Realistic/Delisting Goal: A little will always happen.

* No similar habitats to the SLR estuary. Can't really compare it to anything.