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Floyds Fork Watershed Biological Assessments Update
Floyds Fork TMDL Public Meeting, February 19, 2013
Kentucky Division of WaterDepartment for Environmental Protection
To Protect and Enhance Kentucky’s Environment
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Objectives• Assess the current biological health of selected
streams in the watershed• Identify likely causes of biological impairments
Macro-invertebrates
Fish
Algae
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2012 Sampling Sites
• Floyds Fork mainstem - 4 sites• North and South Forks Currys
Fork and un-named tributary of South Currys Fork
• Ashers Run• “Upper” Chenoweth Run• Pope Lick – 2 Sites• South Long Run• Long Run• Pennsylvania Run• Cedar Creek• Cane Run• Brooks Run
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2012 Site Visit Activities
• General field observations• Biological sampling– Bugs, Fish, Algae
• Habitat Assessment– Assessment of the quality of the habitat available to
aquatic organisms
• Visual algae surveys– Survey of the types and the thickness of algae
growing in the stream
• Chlorophyll-a sampling– Measurement of the amount of algae in the water column
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Aquatic Life Use Assessment• “KIBI” – Kentucky Index of Biotic Integrity (fish)• “MBI” – Macroinvertebrate Bioassessment Index
– pollution tolerant vs. pollution sensitive species– species diversity– species that require adequate habitat of certain types
• Score results fall in a range from Excellent or Good (= Fully Supporting aquatic life use to
Fair, Poor or Very Poor (= not Fully Supporting)
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• dominated by a few pollution tolerant species
• diversity is low and sensitive species are rare
• persistently high levels of algae• low oxygen or widely changing
oxygen• nutrients high compared to most
streams that fully support aquatic life use
Indicators of Nutrients and Organic Enrichment
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Cane RunFishEXCELLENTMacroinvertebratesGOOD
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Floyds Fork lower sectionsFishGOOD to EXCELLENTMacroinvertebratesEXCELLENT
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North Fork Currys ForkMacroinvertebratesFAIR
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Brooks RunMacroinvertebratesFAIR
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Green = Full Support Red = Impaired, causes
include Nutrients and/or Organic Enrichment
Black = Impaired, other causes
Purple = Undetermined impairment or causes
2012 Biological Sampling Results
Penn
sylv
ania
Run
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Green = Full Support Red = Impaired, causes
include Nutrients and/or Organic Enrichment
Black = Impaired, other causes
Purple = Undetermined impairment or causes
Candidate Impairments Feb 2013
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2013-4 Activities• Additional sampling to resolve “Undetermined”
impairments• Biological sampling in remaining streams previously
listed for nutrient/organic enrichment impairments