Pend Oreille River and Tributaries Watershed Advisory Group (WAG)

Watershed advisory groups (WAGs) are groups of interested citizens that provide local public input and guidance to DEQ during the development of water quality improvement plans or "Total Maximum Daily Loads" (TMDLs) for water bodies that fail to meet water quality standards. TMDLs are designed to reduce the levels of pollutants, such as bacteria and sediment, in impaired water bodies.

Content on this page is provided for informational purposes while the Pend Oreille River and Tributaries Watershed Advisory Group (WAG) and DEQ work to develop a water quality improvement plan or "Total Maximum Daily Loads" (TMDLs) for water bodies in the watershed found to be not fully supporting beneficial uses.

Note:All of these documents are considered draft and are subject to change. The goal of providing these documents at WAG meetings and on this web page is to ensure citizens have the opportunity to provide input as the documents are developed.

April 2011 Update: DEQ's technical analysis and regulatory review of the Idaho portion of Pend Oreille Temperature TMDL has been on hold since February 2008. Since then, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has modified its modeling process and provided DEQ a U.S. Geological Survey peer-reviewed report of its findings. Although the Corps' modeling outputs are not directly comparable to those selected by DEQ, they seem similar. Rather than continuing debate over modeling processes, DEQ will perform load duration analyses on both data sets as resources become available. DEQ intends to reconvene the WAG to review preliminary load duration analysis findings and obtain comment and will provide the findings to EPA for TMDL development.

Next Scheduled Meeting Date

To Be Determined

Background

Pend Oreille Tributaries

Pend Oreille River Temperature Model

Idaho DEQ Staff Report on the October 2007 Pend Oreille River Model Report
Pend Oreille River Final Modeling Report October 2007 (Lake Pend Oreille to Albeni Falls Dam)
Pend Oreille River Final Modeling Report March 2007 (Lake Pend Oreille to Albeni Falls Dam)
Final Pend Oreille River Model Calibration Report (Lake Pend Oreille to Albeni Falls Dam)

Note: The following animations were created using Tecplot software. To view them:

Download the zip file and install the utility "Framer" (Framer.exe)
Open the animation file and choose Framer as the program to open it with.

Visit Tecplot for more information.

Revised Temperature Animations (October 2007)
- Animation No. 1
- Animation No. 2
Vertical Profile and Longitudinal Temperature Animations (January 2007)
Idaho Modeling Scenario Animations (March 2007)

Pend Oreille River Total Dissolved Gas

Draft Pend Oreille River and Lake Total Dissolved Gas TMDL (June 2008)

Pend Oreille River Phosphorus

April 2011 Update: The pollutant total phosphorus was proposed to be added to the Pend Oreille River assessment units as a cause of impairment in the 2008 Integrated Report (IR). However, monitoring conducted in 2009 did not support the addition of total phosphorus as a cause of impairment in these assessment units. Therefore, the draft 2010 Integrated Report (IR) proposes to remove total phosphorus as a cause of impairment in the Pend Oreille River assessment units. DEQ is currently evaluating comments received on the draft 2010 IR and expects to submit the document to EPA for approval later this year.