James R. Karr, Ph.D. (University of Washington) Richard R. Horner, Ph.D. (University of Washington) Charles R. Horner, Esq.

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1 EPA s Review of Washington s Water Quality Criteria: An Evaluation of Whether Washington s Criteria Proposal Protects Stream Health and Designated Uses. James R. Karr, Ph.D. (University of Washington) Richard R. Horner, Ph.D. (University of Washington) Charles R. Horner, Esq. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Threatened Puget Sound chinook salmon and other imperiled anadromous and freshwater species continue to decline in Washington State due to the effects of diverse human actions. Recently, the Washington State Department of Ecology ( DOE ) submitted revised water quality standards to the Environmental Protection Agency ( EPA ) for federal approval. DOE s proposed criteria include traditional parameters such as dissolved oxygen, temperature, turbidity, and toxics. This juncture provides an opportunity to reflect on the adequacy of traditional water quality criteria to protect the designated uses of Washington s rivers and streams, which include salmon, trout and char spawning, rearing and migration, and meet the Clean Water Act s objectives. The National Wildlife Federation commissioned this review in order to evaluate the adequacy of Washington s water quality standards to meet these important goals. Traditional physical and chemical parameters as proposed by DOE are often blind to biological condition, either because they do not include many important pollutants or because they ignore other forms of pollution. 1 In contrast, indexes of biological integrity ( IBI ) assess biological condition at a given site by measuring the abundance, richness or diversity, and ecological character of organisms present. In the Pacific Northwest and other regions (e.g., Ohio, Japan, among others), assessments based on invertebrates such as the benthic IBI ( B- IBI ; Karr 1998) are highly correlated with similar measures of the health of the fishes, including salmonids, in a stream. Where biological condition is low, salmon will generally be absent or unsustainable; where biological condition is high, salmon typically will prosper. This paper includes results from an investigation of Puget Sound lowland streams that found select streams in compliance with DOE proposed criteria, despite being in poor biological condition. The results demonstrate that biological degradation and associated fish decline may go unchecked if DOE continues to rely solely on traditional criteria rather than on biological criteria to measure environmental health. In short, the results demonstrate that compliance with all proposed water quality criteria is often not sufficient to ensure protection of designated uses, namely salmon spawning, rearing, and migration. Accordingly, this paper urges adoption of 1 Pollutants are specific substances added to waters by human activity. 33 U.S.C. 1362(6). The Clean Water Act further defines pollution as human-induced alteration of chemical, physical, biological and radiological integrity of water. Id. 1362(19). Such alteration can be caused by pollutants as well as non-pollutant agents, such as flow alteration, loss of riparian zone, physical habitat alteration, and introduction of alien taxa. 1

2 biological criteria as central to measuring and evaluating the health of Washington streams. Using biological criteria would: 1) ensure compliance with the CWA mandate that water quality criteria support designated uses; 2) reflect actual watershed conditions, providing for early detection of biological degradation while restoration is still an option; and 3) satisfy the CWA s overarching goals of restoring the chemical, physical and biological integrity of the nation s waters. This paper first outlines the underlying legal context for EPA s review of Ecology s water quality standards (Section I). The paper then turns to a review of the literature regarding the impacts to stream health associated with human development including urbanization, the chief threat to Puget Sound s lowland salmon streams (Section II). Next, the paper explains the use of indexes of biological integrity generally and in the Pacific Northwest, and these indexes effectiveness at measuring stream conditions for salmon and other native biota (Section III). Finally, Section IV lays out the results of a data investigation of Puget Sound lowland streams comparing biological condition (as measured by the benthic index of biotic integrity) to available physical and chemical data. We conclude that approximately a third of the streams reviewed: a) would be considered to comply with proposed water quality criteria; but b) have such degraded biological condition that they are unlikely to protect and sustain native salmonids. I. INTRODUCTION & LEGAL CONTEXT. The objective of the federal Clean Water Act ( CWA ), 33 U.S.C et seq., is to restore and maintain the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the Nation s waters (emphasis added). 33 U.S.C. 1251(a). To this end, the CWA requires each state to develop water quality standards (hereinafter WQS ) for all streams within its jurisdiction. The WQS must include designated uses for specified waters, water quality criteria that are sufficient to protect those uses, and an antidegradation policy. 33 U.S.C. 1313(c)(2)(A) (water quality standards must enhance the quality of the water and serve the purposes of this chapter, i.e., restoration of the physical and biological integrity of the nation s waters); 40 C.F.R (minimum requirements for WQS submission to EPA). The cornerstone requirement, and the key concern of this paper, is that water quality criteria must be sufficient to protect the designated uses. 40 C.F.R (c) (WQS must include water quality criteria sufficient to protect the designated uses ); 40 C.F.R ( States must adopt those water quality criteria that protect the designated use. Such criteria... must contain sufficient parameters or constituents to protect the designated use. ); 40 C.F.R (purpose of WQS is to protect uses by setting criteria necessary to protect the uses ); 40 C.F.R (b) (definition of criteria as standards representing a quality of water that supports a particular use. When criteria are met, water quality will generally protect the designated use ). The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ( EPA ), in reviewing state proposals, is obligated to ensure that these regulatory mandates are satisfied. 40 C.F.R ( EPA review involves a determination of... (2) whether the State has adopted criteria that protect the designated water uses ). EPA must disapprove the standards if they are not consistent with this and other requirements. See Natural Resources Defense Council v. United States EPA, 17 F.3d 1396, 1402 (4 th Cir. 1992). 2

3 The Washington Department of Ecology ( DOE ) finalized its proposed final WQS in July 2003, and submitted them to EPA for approval in August, Salmon, trout, and char spawning, rearing, and migration are principal designated uses of Washington waters. The proposed criteria, although they include limits for traditional water quality parameters and for certain toxic and other deleterious substances, do not directly include biological criteria or otherwise address the biological conditions of waters necessary to preserve and enhance native fish populations. Because biological conditions are influenced and determined by multiple chemical, physical, and biological factors, a strategy emphasizing only the physical and chemical constituents of water quality (i.e., temperature, dissolved oxygen, turbidity, toxics, etc.) cannot assure the protection or restoration of biological conditions (Karr et al. 1986). Accordingly, biological degradation can proceed unchecked where the impairment status of water bodies is evaluated through the lens of traditional parameters. Biological degradation, in contrast, is closely related to the ability of a stream to protect and sustain native wildlife such as salmon. This conclusion proceeds from work accomplished by a number of scientists and organizations, including EPA itself, and is confirmed by conditions in a number of streams in the Puget Sound Lowland region. In sum, the proposed criteria appear unable to satisfy the CWA s statutory mandate, which requires criteria sufficient to protect designated uses. Reliance on the proposed criteria without accompanying biological criteria will lead to many incorrect determinations that water bodies are unimpaired (Type II error, see below) and hence adequately support designated uses, i.e., spawning, rearing and migration of anadromous and other fish. Section IV of this paper provides an analysis of existing data that reveals that a sample of Puget Sound Lowland streams with significantly degraded biological conditions would, nevertheless, be compliant with DOE s proposed water quality criteria. From a policy perspective, unless biological criteria become a core component of water quality criteria, the declining vitality of many streams and their inability to protect and sustain salmon populations will not be detected until it becomes very difficult or even impossible to undertake preservative or restorative actions. II. IMPACTS OF URBANIZATION ON STREAM BIOLOGICAL CONDITIONS & SALMON. The need for biological criteria is crucial because biological degradation frequently outpaces measurable physical and chemical water quality degradation in diverse land use contexts (e.g., urban, agriculture, forestry). Moreover, a focus on chemical criteria may worsen water resource damage and even waste fiscal resources (Karr et al. 1985). The recent listing of several salmonid stocks as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act brings new challenges to those charged with protecting both species and 2 DOE s proposed WQS are available at < During the public review stage, National Wildlife Federation submitted extensive comments on the legal adequacy of those standards which make the same point as the one documented here: DOE s proposed water quality criteria are insufficient to ensure the protection of designated uses such as salmon spawning, rearing and migration, and hence are legally inadequate. DOE, in its extensive response to public comments, declined to respond to this point. 3

4 water quality in urbanizing regions of the Pacific Northwest. Robust and carefully framed criteria are essential for legal compliance as well as to prevent further degradation of regional water resources and imperiled salmonids. Several research programs in the urbanizing regions of the Pacific Northwest have contributed substantially to understanding the interactions of urban land use, chemical water quality, and stream health, including both stream invertebrates and salmonid fishes. The first study, funded by DOE s Centennial Clean Water Fund, sought to establish cause-effect relationships among the physical, chemical, and biological responses to urbanization (May et al. 1997a, 1997b). More recently, EPA commissioned the Watershed Management Institute to investigate stream habitats and biology across gradients of urbanization and best management practice implementation in four regions of the nation, including the Puget Sound Lowland region (Horner et al. 2002). With funding from the NSF-EPA Water and Watershed Research Program another research team emphasized studies of the relationships among river flow, landowner attitudes and preferences, and river health in Puget Sound Lowland streams (Booth et al. 2001; Morley and Karr 2002; Booth et al. 2003). A parallel research program in the watershed of Oregon s Clackamas River (Karr and Adams, in preparation) had parallel goals, study design, and analytical approaches. These studies yielded data on low-order streams in watersheds with conditions ranging from no urbanization and relatively little human influence to highly urbanized environments (greater than 60 percent total impervious area, or TIA ) as well as some regions with hobby farm and forestry land uses. The results of these studies and other regional studies have been disseminated in reports to funding agencies, the peer-reviewed scientific literature, and technical and scientific conferences. Biological health was assessed according to three measures: B-IBI (Fore et al. 1996; Karr 1998; Karr and Chu 1999), the ratio of young-of-the-year coho salmon (a relatively stress-intolerant fish) to cutthroat trout (a more stress-tolerant species) (May 1996), and an index of the quality of anadromous fish runs. All three biological measures declined with increases of TIA without exhibiting a threshold of effect, i.e., declines were sometimes striking even at low levels (< 8% TIA) of urbanization (Kleindl 1995; May 1996; Horner et al. 1997; May et al. 1997b; Karr and Chu 1997, 1999, 2000). Moreover, although availability of anadromous run data are limited for many streams with B-IBI data, for streams where both kinds of data are available, there is a strong relationships between the two measures, indicating that we can infer aspects of salmon population health from knowledge of benthic invertebrates (B-IBI). In short, extensive research to date reveals a compelling inverse relationship between stream health and urbanization; as TIA increases over time, B-IBI declines. The data reveal that urbanization undermines watershed health in significant and heretofore undetected ways. Historical approaches that emphasize either chemical criteria or conventional approaches to stormwater management are not protective of river health. Particularly germane to EPA s review of DOE s proposed water quality criteria is the finding that chemical water quality constituents sometimes change little with increasing urbanization until urbanization is significantly advanced (May et al. 1997a). Physical and chemical criteria, then, are by themselves insufficient to reveal degradation of biological conditions and accompanying inability to sustain salmon spawning, rearing, and migration except in the most degraded streams, where degradation may be irreversible. This 4

5 limitation of traditional physical and chemical water quality criteria to ensure that designated uses are supported in urban and urbanizing areas further supports the conclusion that the proposed criteria are unable to satisfy the applicable statutory requirements. EPA s approval consequently should be withheld or conditioned on a supplemental proposal to add biological criteria. III. USE OF INDEXES OF BIOLOGICAL INTEGRITY TO DETERMINE STREAM CONDITION AND SUITABILITY FOR SUSTAINABLE SALMON POPULATIONS. A. What Is the Benthic Index of Biotic Integrity ( B-IBI )? The index of biological integrity (hereinafter IBI ) has emerged as the primary approach to biological monitoring and assessment in the United States. IBI, a multimetric index, is composed of biological metrics that count, for example, the number of kinds of organisms present at a site (taxa richness or biodiversity) or the relative abundance of trophic groups such as predators (Karr 1981; Davis and Simon 1995; Karr and Chu 1999). IBI is a powerful monitoring tool for several reasons. First, like the index of leading economic indicators, IBI bases its conclusions about stream health on an ensemble of biological indicators (metrics), each measuring a different aspect of the stream biota (Karr 2003). This ensemble of biological measures, structured like the common indexes used in economics (e.g., index of leading economic indicators) to reflect multiple dimensions of complex systems, includes metrics such as biological diversity; relative abundance of indicator groups of organisms, such as predators, highly tolerant species, and non-native species; health of individual organisms; and ecological relationships such as food web structure (Karr and Chu 1999). Second, the metrics in the index reflect tested and predictable responses to varied human influences; each metric has its own dose-response curve associated with human land uses or other impacts. Third, metrics are chosen to reflect the effects of diverse human actions, such as point-source pollutants, logging, urbanization, or agriculture. Built into biological monitoring tools such as IBI is the reality that the condition of living systems varies continuously with human influence. Scientists and managers can express water body condition with greater precision along a quantitative scale of biological condition in relation to human influence. Adaptations of IBI are now available for various organisms (fishes, insects, birds, vascular plants, and algae) and for diverse environments (rivers and streams, wetlands, coastal estuaries, and terrestrial areas) (Karr 2003). In the Pacific Northwest, benthic IBIs ( B-IBI ) have been calculated on the basis of ten metrics, including diversity within three key insect orders, mayflies (Ephemeroptera), stoneflies (Plecoptera), and caddisflies (Trichoptera). B-IBI ranges up to 50 for the healthiest streams, which support a high diversity of fish and invertebrates (or up to 45 on a previously employed scale). Salmon disappear or decline to remnant populations when B-IBI drops below approximately 35 on the 50-point scale (Karr 2003), or 29 on the 45-point scale. These shifts in the biota, reflected by declining B-IBI, are quantitatively associated with a variety of human land uses and impacts from protected areas in parks and refuges to lightly or heavily logged forestlands and farms to suburban and urban development. For example, B-IBI in addition to 5

6 reflecting the effects of chemical pollutants also reflects declining stream health due to impaired hydrology (i.e., chronic above-average flows associated with increasing TIA) or altered physical habitat to which traditional water quality criteria are blind. B. Effectiveness of IBI to Identify Water Body Impairment Not Disclosed by Traditional Physical and Chemical Water Quality Criteria. 1. EPA s Support for Using Biological Criteria in Evaluating Environmental Conditions. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ( EPA ) more than thirteen years ago began urging states to adopt biological indicators like IBI in their water quality criteria (EPA 1990; Karr 1991 [outlining steps EPA had taken in late 1980s and early 1990s to encourage states to adopt biological criteria]). EPA guidance issued in 1990 stated flatly that to meet the objectives of the Act and to comply with statutory requirements under Sections 303 and 304, States are to adopt biological criteria in State standards (EPA 1990 [emphasis added]; EPA 1991b). ( It is also EPA s policy that States should designate aquatic life uses that address biological integrity and adopt biological criteria necessary to protect those uses. ) (emphasis added). In a 1988 national symposium, [a] workgroup of State and Federal representatives unanimously recommended the development of a national bioassessment policy that encouraged the expanded use of the new biological tools and directed their implementation across the water quality program.... [T]he adoption of biological criteria should be strongly encouraged. (EPA 1991b). As described below, while many states have answered EPA s call, Washington DOE is behind many states nationally and far behind other states in the Pacific Northwest in working towards adoption of biological criteria in its WQS. EPA noted that biological criteria provide numerous important benefits in assuring proper implementation of the Act s goals. As noted above, EPA concurred with the well-established conclusion that traditional water quality criteria are unable to detect many kinds of degradation that undermine designated uses, a point that was recently reinforced by a National Academy of Sciences/National Research Council Report on the scientific foundations of the total maximum daily load ( TMDL ) program (NRC 2001). The guidance further catalogues how biological criteria would help states meet other requirements of the CWA. EPA urged a phased implementation whereby states first adopted narrative biological criteria, and then undertook the necessary assessments and research to determine stream-specific numeric criteria (EPA 1990). Importantly, EPA noted that narrative biological criteria can be developed for all five surface water classifications with little or no data collection. In other words, there is no significant research obstacle in adopting first phase biological criteria. It is a matter of political will, not data collection or lack of scientific knowledge. In another analysis, EPA pointed out that this approach has already proven effective. Ohio s experience with biological criteria has demonstrated that an effective program can be cost effective, compared with traditional approaches.... In Ohio and North Carolina, biological assessments have uncovered previously unidentified water quality impairments or revealed problems before they became severe. (EPA 1991a). Recent EPA reports highlight the progress within states, including the major successes of many states (Davis et al. 1996; EPA 2002). 6

7 Accordingly, it has been EPA s position for some time that EPA expects States to fully integrate chemical specific techniques, toxicity testing, biological surveys, and biological criteria into their water quality programs.... To better protect the integrity of aquatic communities, it is EPA s policy that States should develop and implement biological criteria in their water quality standards. EPA (1991b) (emphasis added); see also EPA (1990) ( chemical and physical integrity are necessary, but not sufficient conditions to attain biological integrity... ) In 1990, EPA s Science Advisory Board issued a report entitled Reducing Risk: Setting Priorities and Strategies for Environmental Protection that called on EPA to attach as much importance to analysis of ecological risks and their consequences as it does to human health risks (EPA 1990). EPA s Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program ( EMAP ) highlights IBI as a key approach to fulfilling the program s goals. A major report issued by EPA in June 2003, the Draft Report on the Environment 2003, is the first comprehensive product of EPA s effort to broadly describe the condition of the environment, as Congress requested in 1988 hearings (EPA 2003a). The report endorses the use of IBI to evaluate ecological conditions. The Executive Summary of the 2003 EPA report highlights the utility of IBI: Assessments of condition that use many variables can be summarized to make them more understandable and usable. The index of biotic integrity (IBI), for example, is a useful approach that combines multiple variables that reflect the ecological condition of a place, such as biological diversity and the health of individual organisms. In the forward to Assessing the Sustainability and Biological Integrity of Water Resources Using Fish Communities, by Thomas P. Simon (Simon 1999), Wayne S. Davis (Office of Environmental Information, USEPA) gave the following strong endorsement for IBI: Few events can transform the nature of a discipline as has the development and application of the original index of biotic integrity (IBI) by Dr. James R. Karr using fish communities.... [T]he IBI is a fundamentally sound and critical approach to measuring the health of our waters. 2. The Existing Literature Documents Limitations of Traditional Water Quality Criteria. EPA is not alone in its assessment that chemical criteria provide only part of the picture, and that IBIs are more effective means to evaluate waterbody and watershed health. Scientists and policymakers consistently note the drawbacks of exclusive reliance on traditional physical and chemical water quality criteria. The National Research Council (NRC 2001) and the General Accounting Office (GAO 2003) emphasize the centrality of indicator selection to protection of designated uses and meeting CWA goals. The U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO 2003) notes that dependence on administrative performance measures (e.g., number of environmental standards established, permits issued, and enforcement actions taken, all referred to as outputs) still limits program effectiveness, including EPA s ability to assess risk. GAO calls for a shift from output measures to end outcomes, i.e., direct measures of environmental 7

8 conditions. The NRC explicitly cites IBI as a more accurate indicator of overall water quality than outputs measures. In short, criteria that involve actual measures of biological condition such as IBI are more integrative and accurate indicators of whether specific designated uses have been or can be attained. Moreover, chemical water quality assessments are more likely to lead to interpretative errors than biological assessments by, for instance, identifying water bodies as impaired when they are not (Type I errors) or failing to identify water bodies that are, in fact, impaired (Type II errors) (Karr and Yoder 2004). Although Type I errors often garner more public attention (NRC 2001), studies using empirical data show that Type II errors are, in fact, more common, leaving impairment undiagnosed and management agencies unaware of actual water body impairment (Rankin and Yoder 1990; D. Drake, Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, unpublished analyses, 2002). The literature is replete with conclusions that traditional chemical water quality criteria are in large measure unable to detect significant degradation in the biological health of rivers and streams. (Karr 2003) ( Through much of the twentieth century, however, efforts to track the health of water bodies focused instead on the presence of chemical contaminants: the assumption was that chemically clean water was sufficient to protect river health. This assumption proved wrong. ) (emphasis added); (Booth et al. 2003; Karr et al. 2000) ( [A] focus on water chemistry... do[es] not guarantee the well-being of aquatic life, the integrity of water and watersheds, or the continuity of the water cycle. ); (Karr 1998; EPA 1990) ( A primary strength of biological criteria is the detection of water quality problems that other methods may miss or underestimate. ) Nor is this information new to Ecology; a 1997 report commissioned by the Washington Department of Ecology itself on the impacts of urbanization on watershed health concluded that chemical constituents rarely exceeded such criteria/standards in the [Puget Sound Lowlands] streams although numerous results elsewhere have documented adverse effects of stormwater on stream quality. (May et al. 1997a). One recent Puget Sound study found that about half of the streams sampled in Puget Sound were in poor or very poor biological health, as measured by B-IBI (Morley and Karr 2002). Few of them are listed as water quality limited on the state s 303(d) list that is intended to identify stream segments that are unable to support designated uses. The inability of traditional water quality criteria to assess degradation of stream condition has been shown to be particularly true at relatively lower levels of degradation. See, e.g., May et al. (1997a) ( water quality criteria were rarely violated except in the most highly urbanized watersheds.... these findings indicate that chemical water quality of urban streams is not generally significantly degraded at the low impervious levels... ) In a 1997 study, Puget Sound researchers found that urbanization caused significant degradation of the biological integrity of waters, but that traditional water quality parameters failed to capture these impacts until the degradation reached a critical stage (May et al. 1997a). The reports authors concluded: Results of the PSL stream study have shown that physical, chemical, and biological characteristics of streams change with increasing urbanization in a continuous rather than threshold fashion. [P]atterns of change differed among the attributes studied and were 8

9 more strongly evident for some than for others.... There was also direct evidence that altered watershed hydrologic regime was the leading cause for the overall changes observed in instream physical habitat conditions. Water quality constituents and metal sediment concentrations did not follow this pattern. These variables changed little over the urbanization gradient until imperviousness (%TIA) approached 40%. (May et al. 1997a) (emphasis added); see also (May and Horner 2000) ( Until TIA exceeded 40% biological decline was more strongly associated with hydrologic fluctuation than with chemical water and sediment quality ). The importance of altered hydrologic regime as a primary determinant of biological condition was also demonstrated by Morley and Karr (2002) ( The biological condition of a site was related to measures of hydrologic alteration and stream substrate. The aquatic biota is sensitive to a variety of urban effects, expressed at both large and small spatial scales ). These conclusions are consistent with the readily observed data noted above that streams with significantly compromised biological condition as measured by B-IBI are not significantly in violation of existing criteria. In other words, the science shows that existing water quality criteria are functionally blind to impacts that undermine the biological integrity of watersheds and their designated uses. 3 This information is well-known to Ecology (May 1997a; report commissioned by Ecology). 3. States That Use IBI In Water Quality Criteria. At the state level, the use of biological indicators like IBI in CWA water quality standards is neither novel nor untested. In 1990, EPA counted fifteen states that were in the process of developing biological criteria (EPA 1990). Today, a number of states throughout the nation use biological indicators in diverse ways under their water quality standards (Davis et al. 1996, Karr & Chu 1999; EPA 2002). A few use specific numeric limits as part of their criteria to protect designated uses. As a recent EPA report noted, Many states use multi-metric, community level bioassessments to report water resource condition. Biological assessments provide direct measures of cumulative response of the biological community to all sources of stress; they measure the condition of the aquatic resource to be protected. (EPA 2003b). The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency has promulgated biological criteria as part of its water quality standards, which supplements (not replaces) traditional criteria involving chemical/physical water quality and toxics. See Ohio Admin. Code Importantly, the rules provide for specific IBI scores for various water types on the basis of analyses of both fish and invertebrates (as well as another biological indicator, the modified index of well-being applied to fish). See Table Similarly, the state of Florida has adopted specific criteria for biological integrity, focusing on percentage reductions from background levels. Florida Admin. Code (table). Florida is shifting to a comprehensive biological monitoring program in part because extensive data files on physical and chemical water quality along with voluminous but indigestible reports have little effect on water resource programs (McCarron and 3 Scientists agree that perhaps the highest priority management approach for recovering salmon populations and water quality in Puget Sound is to protect the few places that are still healthy, particularly those that are under the greatest threat from urbanization. (Doppelt et al. 1993; Trust for Public Land 2001; Morley and Karr 2002; May et al. 1997a, b). A regulatory regime that is unable to detect the earliest stages of degradation poorly serves this approach. 9

10 Frydenborg 1997). In many cases, by the time proof is available to demonstrate that aquatic systems health has declined, it is too late for effective prevention efforts, and restoration is too costly (Karr and Chu 1999). Other states incorporate biological indicators in monitoring or to ensure that designated uses are protected. See, e.g., Maine Admin. Code , App. C ( aquatic life...shall be as naturally occurs ); Arkansas Admin. Code (narrative biological indicator listing presence of specific fish species); Connecticut DEP Water Quality Standards 4 (narrative standard listing presence of invertebrate species that should be well represented); Idaho Admin. Code (authorizing Department to use biological indicators to ensure beneficial uses are being supported); Vermont Admin. Code (C) (authorizing promulgation of numeric biological indexes to ensure protection of biological integrity). For a comprehensive state-by-state programmatic review, see EPA (2002). Although some states have made substantial progress in use of biological evaluations, the percentage of river miles evaluated with biological data in Washington for the 1994 state report on impaired rivers was 0% (Karr et al. 2000). We have seen no evidence that there has been substantial improvement in the past decade. 4. Empirical Data: Superior Performance of IBI in Revealing Declines in Biological Conditions of Streams in Other Regions. Empirical studies in a range of environments around the United States and abroad demonstrate the capability of IBI to reveal water body impairment not disclosed by traditional water quality data. In Ohio, the proportion of miles classified as exhibiting non-attainment increased from 9% in 1986 (on the basis of on a mix of water quality and qualitative biological indicators) to 44% in 1988 primarily because of the introduction and primacy of numerical biological criteria in the assessment and reporting process. (Yoder and Rankin 1998). The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency uses both fish and invertebrate IBIs. In other words, a substantial proportion of Ohio s streams that were deemed compliant based on traditional water quality criteria were revealed to be significantly impaired once biological criteria were established. This finding is of critical importance for EPA s review of DOE s proposed criteria, since, as described below, the data reveals that the same phenomenon is observed in Puget Sound. One recent analysis of Oregon data (D. Drake, Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, unpublished analysis, 2002) showed that the use of biological indicators in assessment programs instead of traditional chemical water quality indicators resulted in a 50 to 100 percent increase in the fraction of state waters judged impaired. The analysis noted that biology and water quality agreed in 70 percent of the cases examined, indicating increased ability to detect impairment with biological evaluations. Sixteen years earlier, Karr et al. (1986) noted the generality of this pattern: While this discrepancy may at first seem remarkable, the reasons for it are many and complex. Biological communities respond to and integrate a wide variety of

11 chemical, physical and biological factors in the environment of both natural and anthropogenic origin. Simply stated, controlling chemical water quality alone does not assure the ecological integrity of the water resources. In a letter dated April 18, 2002, D. Drake of the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality stated that, because [t]he results of this analysis demonstrate the utility of aquatic biota to reflect and integrate multiple chemical, physical and biological influences, the Department s plan to adopt numeric biocriteria in the near future is a logical next step. (letter from D. Drake, Oregon DEP to Rick Hafele, Oregon DEP and Gretchen Hayslip, USEPA Region X). Washington, in contrast, has largely ignored the potential of using IBI in its water quality program to ensure watershed integrity and protection of designated uses. 5. The Relationship between B-IBI and Northwest Salmon Populations. The fishes, invertebrates, algae, and microorganisms that occupy Pacific Northwest rivers like the species found in rivers throughout the world evolved natural histories that allow them to survive, grow, and reproduce. They sustain their populations because they are adapted to the natural range of river conditions (e.g., water temperature, ph, nutrient levels, seasonal flow patterns, water depth, river substrates, and other aspects of river habitat ). When human activities alter any of the major dimensions of the river environment, the abundance and distribution of many native species may be altered; some even go locally or regionally extinct. The most widely recognized component of river degradation in the Pacific Northwest is the decline in salmonid populations. But for a variety of reasons, tracking salmon populations is not always the most efficient and cost effective way to understand changing river condition. That is precisely why scholars and resource managers have developed biological monitoring approaches that include fish (Karr et al. 1986; Hughes et al. 1998), invertebrates (Karr 1998; Morley and Karr 2002), and algae (Fore and Grafe 2002; Fore 2003). Many states that have initiated biological monitoring programs in the past two decades routinely sample two or more of these groups. Each taxonomic group provides very strong and easily interpreted signals about the condition of a sampled river. Moreover, when properly sampled all groups rank river health nearly identically no matter what taxonomic group is sampled. A careful analysis of this issue was recently completed by a doctoral student at the University of Washington (Rossano 2002). Rossano collected data on fish and invertebrates from the same reaches of streams in two regions of Japan: Hyogo-Osaka region-44 sites; and Ise Bay region-13 sites. She developed fish and invertebrate IBIs applicable to the faunas of Japanese rivers. The two IBIs were highly correlated (r = 0.91) demonstrating that a river sampled with the benthic (invertebrate) IBI provides a very strong indicator on the condition of the fishes in the same river. The data reveals that low B-IBI correlates with unsustainable or nonexistent fish populations, while high B-IBI correlates with healthy and sustainable fish populations. Data for Pacific Northwest rivers are much less comprehensive and detailed, largely because knowledge of fishes is simply not adequate to date despite more than a century of concern about declining salmonid populations. One recent study (J. R. Karr, unpublished) 11

12 demonstrates the same pattern as the data from Japan, but the data are not as rigorous or extensive. We compared our B-IBI results for a number of lowland Puget Sound streams with an index of salmonid population health for the same streams provided by Gino Luchetti, a fish ecologist with many years of work in King County streams. Salmonids in each stream were classed according to a 5-class system (ranging from 1 with few or no fish to 5 with more healthy fish populations). For that analysis we were able to document the condition of both invertebrates (with B-IBI) and salmonids. The results of that analysis were as follows: Fish Run Quality B-IBI Streams (FRQ) 1 (None) 14 Thornton 2 (Very Poor) 12 to 28 Miller, Swamp 3 (Poor) 24 to 34 May, Big Soos, Jenkins 4 (Fair) 16 to 40 Little Bear 5 (Good) 36 to 48 Big Bear, Rock This comparison reveals that the quality of fish runs is closely correlated with B-IBI: streams with poor or non-existent fish populations have low B-IBI, and conversely, robust salmon populations are only found in streams with high B-IBI. Streams with IBI as high as 34 (e.g., Jenkins Creek) still support fish runs of poor quality (FRQ 3) while streams with at least some segments showing B-IBI above 35 have fair or good FRQ. Little Bear provides a particularly interesting example because of high variability in local level urban land cover that is strikingly associated with B-IBI (r = 0.91). Among nine sites for which B-IBI samples are available, only two have B-IBI exceeding 35 (36, 40) while seven range from 16 to 34. The maximum B-IBI (40) in the Little Bear watershed had the lowest local level urban land cover (32%), whereas the lowest B-IBI (16) occurred at a site with 71% local urban land cover. Apparently, salmon can persist in watersheds where stream reaches are still present that support biological systems with B-IBI above 35. The converse is that degradation in the small number of high quality sites that remain in the Little Bear watershed will likely be associated with substantial declines in the vitality of a salmon run ranked as fair by a regional biologist. Further development in the watershed threatens that salmon run in ways that will not likely be detected by any of the currently proposed physical or chemical water quality criteria. Thus, an assessment of B-IBI provides a simple and effective snapshot of the suitability of that stream to support salmon populations. If B-IBI reflects substantial impairment, we are confident that the stream will not support sustainable salmon spawning, rearing, and migration. As shown below (Section IV), this is in sharp contrast with the effectiveness of traditional water quality criteria which are not able to detect the ability of a sampled stream to support salmon. Whether one uses the ratio of young-of-the-year coho salmon to young-of-the-year cutthroat trout (May 1996) or the B-IBI as just described, one finds a sharp drop in salmon population viability at about B-IBI = 35 (Karr 2003). We would, of course, like to have a more substantial body of knowledge of the precise relationships between stream health as measured by invertebrates, fish, and algae. The lack of adequate data on fish limits our ability to document those relationships. In the meantime, available data as just described and our extensive experience in Puget Sound streams lead us to conclude that salmon and the biota in regional 12

13 streams in general suffer with the earliest stages of development and are greatly depleted by the time B-IBI drops below 35. Finally, although regional studies of Puget Sound lowland streams completed in the past decade do not provide a properly designed (i.e., statistically random) sample of those streams, they do provide a general view of the condition of regional streams. Taking a sample of 49 stream sites, for example, yields the following distribution of biological condition (J. R. Karr, unpublished). B-IBI Number of Streams This distribution suggests that at least 37 of 49 (76%) of sampled streams are not able to support viable salmonid populations, 4 of 49 (8%) are likely to support salmonids, and the remaining 8 (16%) are in the transition zone between those two classes. In short, the majority of Puget Sound streams, all of which used to sustain salmonids, are no longer are capable of sustaining those fish because they do not provide the biological context required to provide migration, spawning, and rearing areas. One final point is important here. Throughout this discussion we have emphasized the importance of self-sustaining (naturally reproducing) populations of salmonids. We distinguish between the existence of a viable, self-reproducing population and the simple presence of fish in a stream. The mere observation of a few fish in a stream is not a reliable indicator of reproduction, habitat suitability, or sustainability because of the propensity for a small number of fish in each generation to stray. Thus, some adults in a given stream were not born there; in highly degraded streams that are unable to support spawning and rearing, all adults may be strays from other streams. Many strays arrive in severely degraded streams and die without laying their eggs or after laying their eggs in places where the eggs are unlikely to develop or fry are unlikely to find suitable habitat to mature sufficiently to migrate downstream to coastal waters where they can mature further. That is, the fish in many of these streams are unlikely to reproduce successfully. In summary, bioassessment programs in regions as widespread as Japan, Ohio, and the Pacific Northwest demonstrate the similarity in river condition assessments whether one samples fish, invertebrates, or diatoms. Because most Puget Sound lowland streams have low biological condition as inferred from studies employing the invertebrate B-IBI, we conclude that the condition of the fishes in those streams are similar. A look at the maps produced in recent years 13

14 by the Tri-County and other regional initiatives on the condition of salmonids simply reinforces that inference. 5 IV. COMPARING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF B-IBI AND DOE PROPOSED WATER QUALITY CRITERIA TO DETERMINE BIOLOGICIAL CONDITIONS AND SUITABILITY FOR SALMONIDS IN PUGET SOUND LOWLAND STREAMS. A. Introduction. This section of the paper outlines an investigation into whether the observations of researchers and agency staff that traditional water quality criteria often fail to reveal degraded biological conditions also holds true in the Puget Sound Lowland region. The investigation focuses on Puget Sound because it is a rapidly urbanizing area that has sustained substantial losses in salmonid populations, and because the streams that still sustain healthy salmon populations are increasingly threatened by encroaching development. The goal of this investigation was to determine whether attainment of proposed water quality criteria was sufficient to ensure protection of the designated uses of salmon spawning, rearing, and migration, as the law requires. The results demonstrate that DOE s proposed criteria are insufficient to protect designated uses where B-IBI falls below critical levels at streams that are otherwise compliant with the proposed criteria. This investigation is intended to be illustrative, not exhaustive. B. Methods. Existing data were collected to identify streams where B-IBI and physical and chemical water quality sampling occurred in similar locations. The sources of the physical and chemical data include DOE, various County agencies, and citizen streamkeeper organizations. Sources of B-IBI data include studies performed by Drs. Karr, Horner, and May of the University of Washington, County agencies, and citizen organizations. Stream locations in which both water sampling and B-IBI data could be found provided a reasonable set of streams to begin work with. Streams for which it was impossible to confirm geographic consistency among sampling sites were excluded from the analysis. A second, refined list of streams was prepared for which B-IBI scored less than 35 points on the 50-scale or 29 on the 45-scale and, on the basis of a preliminary inspection of data, water quality appeared to comply with the WQS. 6 These B-IBI thresholds were chosen, as explained above, as representative of the point at which a stream is so impaired that it is generally unable to sustain salmon populations (Karr 2003). The next phase of the investigation was the application of DOE s proposed criteria to the available physical and chemical water quality data, with the goal of assessing whether streams would be considered to have attained all criteria. Criteria and guidance for their application were obtained from the new Water Quality Standards for Surface Waters of the State of Washington, 5 < 6 In order to ensure consistency between scores based on a 45-point B-IBI scale, and those on a 50-point scale, two different cut-off points are appropriate to show thresholds of degradation relating to salmon survival: 29 and 35, respectively. 14

15 Chapter A WAC, and procedures set forth on pages of DOE s Assessment of Water Quality for the Section 303(d) List, WQP Policy 1-11, September The only regulated parameters for which data were consistently available were temperature, dissolved oxygen, ph, and turbidity. Fecal coliform results were not used because that parameter has little relevance to aquatic biota and suitability for salmonids. That is, violation of fecal coliform water quality standards do not determine either biological condition in the broader sense or the ability of the stream to sustain healthy salmonid populations. It was not possible to apply toxics criteria in the analysis because the amount of data on the constituents and species covered by the WQS was too limited. We do not believe that the unavailability of toxics data compromises the conclusions of this paper. In general, toxics are not the primary factors responsible for biological degradation in most streams in the United States. In a national analysis of river impairment from pollutants (EPA 1994), metals ranked fifth as the only class of toxics in the top five pollutant classes (bacteria, siltation, nutrients, oxygen depleting substances, and metals; summary in Karr et al. 2000). Ohio, with perhaps the most extensive analysis of causes of river impairment, ranks metals forth and priority organics ninth; the top 11 causes of nonattainment of aquatic life use goals in Ohio streams are habitat alteration, low dissolved oxygen from organic enrichment, siltation, metals, flow alteration, nutrients, other, unknown, ph, priority organics, and ammonia (Sanders 2000). Moreover, the absence of data for toxics in the routine sampling programs of the region make it impossible to determine if there are violations of water quality criteria or if they are connected to changes in biological condition. Determining whether physical and chemical water quality data for the selected streams indicated a violation of DOE s proposed criteria required the adoption of several particularized procedures and assumptions. First, because temperature and dissolved oxygen data were generally collected for the selected streams no more often than monthly, a stream was deemed to be in violation of the proposed criteria according to the following procedure for listing streams under Section 303(d): A water body will be placed on the 303(d) list for temperature or dissolved oxygen when these data show a violation of the water quality standard on at least one day in at least three different years during the most recent ten-year period (WQP Policy 1-11; Steve Butkus of DOE, personal communication with Charles Horner). Second, because of a lack of information on specific effects of human activities on temperature, dissolved oxygen, and ph, it was not possible to distinguish human-caused variability that could violate the proposed criteria from natural variability that would not. It was therefore necessary to assume that streams that did not appear to violate the criteria did not suffer from proscribed human-caused variability and that streams that did appear to violate the criteria did so because of human activities. Third, streams were divided between those for which physical and chemical impairment or unimpairment were definite and those for which impairment or unimpairment were probable. Findings of definite impairment or unimpairment are founded on reasonably complete data that cover at least three water years (October 1 through September 30) within the past ten years. Determinations of definite impairment or unimpairment depended on the 15