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The Big Sioux River basin lies mainly within three counties in the northwest portion of Iowa, Lyon, Sioux and Plymouth counties, and the river serves as the Iowa-South Dakota border. Water quality monitoring conducted by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources has found the river to be impaired for pathogens (indicator bacteria/fecal coliform) and that the criterion of 400 bacteria/100 ml for the protection of primary contact recreation uses has been exceeded. The river has been placed on Iowa's Clean Water Act 303(d) Impaired Waters List and is to have a Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) or water quality improvement plan developed for it. A TMDL is designed to determine the amount of pollutant(s) a lake or river can have before violating a water quality standard or limit. It is an objective process that utilizes monitoring and local watershed information, sets a target for reduction of the pollutant, and provides guidance for implementation practices to improve the water quality. Potential sources in this watershed for pathogens includes overland runoff from livestock and wildlife, wastewater treatment plants, and leaking septic systems.
The Iowa DNR TMDL Program seeks to include the public and interested stakeholders in this process by holding several public meetings to address the impairment of the Big Sioux River. The meetings and their locations are:
Friday, June 17, 1:30 PM, West Lyon Community School, Vocational Agriculture classroom, Inwood
Tuesday, June 21, 1:30 PM, Farmers Coop meeting room, Sioux Center
Tuesday, June 21, 7:30 PM, Hawarden Community Center, Hawarden
We welcome your interest and attendance at any one of the above meetings. We also encourage you to link to DNR's web site for TMDLs at http://www.iowadnr.com/water/tmdlwqa/index.html and contact us if you have any questions or have watershed information you'd like to share with us.
Marian Maas, Ph.D.
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