Bioassessment and Biocriteria Program Status for South Dakota: Streams and Wadeable Rivers

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State Program Contact

South Dakota Department of Environment and Natural Resources Exit

Water Quality Standards

WQS Information
The link to South Dakota's WQS that are in effect for Clean Water Act purposes is provided below. These are the WQS approved by EPA.

Water Quality Standards Regulations: South Dakota

The state of South Dakota provided information and links to sections of their administrative code on designated aquatic life use, biological criteria, antidegradation as well as technical support documents and information on its bioassessment and biocriteria programs. These are included below for your convenience and may or may not reflect the most recently EPA approved WQS. The following links exit the site Exit

Surface Water Quality

Designated Aquatic Life Uses

Coldwater permanent fish life propagation
Coldwater marginal fish life propagation
Warmwater permanent fish life propagation
Warmwater semipermanent fish life propagation
Warmwater marginal fish life propagation
Fish and wildlife propagation, recreation, and stock watering

ALUs use both a single grab sample threshold (acute) and a multiple sample threshold (chronic) for a suite of parameters known to be related to the ALUs.

Biological Criteria
__X__ Narrative statement
_____ Numeric
_____ No criteria

Biological integrity of waters.
All waters of the state must be free from substances, whether attributable to human-induced point source discharges or nonpoint source activities, in concentrations or combinations which will adversely impact the structure and function of indigenous or intentionally introduced aquatic communities.

Antidegradation Policy
Use of biocriteria or bioassessment not included in antidegradation policy.
Antidegradation of waters of the state
Antidegradation of water quality review for existing point source discharges to waters of the state
Antidegradation of water quality review for new, potential point source discharges to waters of the state
Antidegradation of water quality review for nonpoint source discharges to waters of the state

Biological Assessment

What biological assemblages are used in the bioassessment program?
Benthic macroinvertebrates and fish

Are bioassessments used to support 303(d) listings?
Yes. Listing methodology: The 2014 South Dakota Integrated Report for Surface Water Quality Assessment (PDF) (248 pp, 10 MB)

How are assemblages used to make impairment decisions?
Currently limited to Ecoregion 46, level IV. Based on IBI scores for fish and benthos. If both IBI scores are ≤ 50 then listed as impaired. If one of the IBI scores is > 50 then include a Habitat Condition score. If 2 out of 3 scores are not meeting the thresholds then it is considered impaired. Further monitoring may be required to determine the cause of impairment.

Other uses of biocriteria or bioassessment within the water quality program:
BMP evaluation

Technical Support Information and Documents:

Reference condition:
Stream reference sites represent least impacted condition for the population of streams in a region. Reference sites are identified and validated based on an assessment of chemical, physical, and biological condition and landscape disturbance factors. A regional approach (ecoregion) is used to characterize reference site networks.

Technical reference material: The 2014 South Dakota Integrated Report for Surface Water Quality Assessment (PDF) (248 pp, 10 MB)

Biocriteria:
Not available.

Stressor identification/causal analysis approach:
Biological samples are usually accompanied by a suite of chemical/physical analyses but more extensive monitoring may be required to establish stressor identifications, casual relationships, etc.

Technical reference material: The 2014 South Dakota Integrated Report for Surface Water Quality Assessment (PDF) (248 pp, 10 MB)

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