Jessie Lake TMDL

Jessie Lake TMDL

What is a Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL)?

The federal Clean Water Act (CWA) requires states to adopt water-quality standards to protect waters from pollution. These standards define how much of a pollutant can be in the water and still allow it to meet designated uses, such as drinking water, fishing and swimming. This allowed pollutant load to the water body is defined as its Total Maximum Daily Load. More information on Impaired Waters and the TMDL process can be found on MPCA's website.

Identification and Restoration of Impaired Waters

“Impaired waters” are those waters that do not meet water-quality standards for one or more pollutants, thus they are “impaired” for their designated uses.

Section 303(d) of the Clean Water Act requires states to:

Jessie Lake TMDL

Impairment: Aquatic recreation due to excess nutrients.

Listed: 2004

Project History

Interest in the health of Jessie Lake and the surrounding watershed increased in the 1990's when lakeshore residents expressed concerns about algal blooms possibly leading to decreased water quality.

To address residents’ concerns, the Jessie Lake Watershed Association (JLWA) applied for and was awarded a conservation partners grant and partnered with the Itasca County Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD), the Chippewa National Forest, and the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to conduct water quality testing during 1998 and 1999. Water quality data from these years indicated that Jessie Lake had experienced a doubling in its total phosphorus concentrations compared to the average summer conditions of 1992 to 1998. Residents and local resource professionals found this pattern troubling as unstable and elevated phosphorus concentrations could indicate accelerated eutrophication from minor increases in nutrient loading.

Lakes falling within the Northern Lakes and Forest Ecoregion are considered relatively stable and free from cultural eutrophication with typical total phosphorus values ranging between 14-27 ug/l. (MN PCA 2000 # 22). Jessie Lake was considered one of those pristine lakes within the Chippewa National Forest, but with an average phosphorus level of 59 ug/l in 1998, questions began to arise over its health and stability. Local, state, and federal officials were also becoming concerned regarding perceived changes in weather patterns and the potential impacts climate change could have upon lake and stream resources.

Resource professionals and local citizens agreed that these concerns needed answers and from 2000-2002 the Itasca County SWCD headed up a Clean Water Partnership (CWP) diagnostic study of Jessie Lake with assistance from multiple local, state, and federal agencies. Results from the CWP study showed: (1) Jessie is a sensitive lake from a nutrient-eutrophication perspective; (2) the lake has historically received a succession of cumulative impacts from logging, agricultural, and development; (3) the lake has significant and worsening internal phosphorus loading from its sediments; (4) the lake is polymictic from both a temperature and oxygen perspective leading to increased internal loading rates; and (5) the lake can be improved significantly over time, through reductions in external and internal phosphorus sources.

In 2004, Jessie Lake was listed on the Federal Clean Water Act’s 303(d) list of impaired waters for aquatic recreation due to excess nutrients. Once listed, the CWA requires that the state complete a TMDL study for the water body. The Itasca SWCD is currently under contract with MPCA to complete a third party TMDL for Jessie Lake. The comprehensive CWP study has met many of the TMDL diagnostic requirements, but there is still much to be done. The project is set to be completed in 2009.