Poster used to present the findings for my semester long capstone project

1. Products for the EPA & Objectives
Methods
The Clean Water Act created the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination
System (NPDES) permit program as a regulatory tool that allows for the
Environmental Protection Agency to regulate pollution from point
sources (EPA, 2018). Point source pollutants are discharged from sources
such “factories, sewer systems and animal feedlots” (Frontier Group,
2018). NPDES permitted facilities were identified in the Red River Basin
along with their compliance history .
Impaired Waterbodies in Texas: Red River Basin
Basin
Aliana Hale, Ali Van Fleet, Karlie Wilkinson, Taylor Hill,
Mackenzie Smith, Jesse Kwok
College of Geosciences, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas 77840
Results: Top 5 Facilities based off the Impairment Index Discussion
Conclusion
Introduction
The final products for this project consist of a report that lists NPDES-
permitted facilities that could be contributing to bacteria and or nutrient
impairment in the streams, their respective rankings and a map showing
the locations of these facilities.
Publicly available data that was used to compile information on facilities:
● Draft 2016 Index of Water Quality Impairments provided by TCEQ
● TCEQ Surface Water Quality Viewer
● EPA Enforcement and Compliance History Online website
Results: GIS Maps
Dr. Roark for guidance throughout the project and the group at the EPA
whom assigned us this project and for answering our questions.
Acknowledgements
Figure 1. Study
Area: Red River
Basin
http://www.twdb.texas.gov/surfacew
ater/rivers/river_basins/red/index.asp
Future Work
Future work relevant to this project would consist of evaluating other river
basins in Texas with impaired stream segments. As well as locating
confined animal feeding operations within specific river basins.
References
Figure 6. GIS Map displaying the result of
the Hot Spot Analysis.
Figure 4. Top 5 offenders in the Red River Basin based off the ranking system. The ranking system
utilizes data from the past three years.
Figure 5. GIS Map showing location of
permitted facilities. This map is color coded
based on the amount of points each facility
accumulated.
The hot spot map identified that several problematic facilities are
clustered in the Wichita Falls area which could further influence decisions
on enforcement efforts. Development on ArcMap 10.5 highlighted
impaired stream segments with NPDES-permitted facilities that are
violating their permits.
EPA or TCEQ need to be stricter with enforcing reporting for minor
facilities since there are only 3 major facilities out of all 66 facilities.
Pollutants that are associated with bacteria/ nutrient impairment:
● E. coli
● Total Suspended Solids (TSS)
● Nitrogen (ammonia)
The top 5 facilities consist of Wastewater Treatment Plants & Wastewater
Treatment Facilities
Highest ranking facility: City of Crowell Wastewater Treatment Plant
EPA (2018) https://www.epa.gov/npdes/npdes-permit-basics (accessed 20 April 2019)
Frontier Group (2018)
https://environmenttexas.org/sites/environment/files/reports/TX_TroubledWaters_scrn_0.pdf
(accessed 20 April 2019)
EPA ECHO (2018) https://echo.epa.gov/help/loading-tool/reports/pollutant-loading-report-
help-dmr#summary (accessed 20 April 2019)
Figure 2. Segment ID data from all impaired streams accessed from
the Draft 2016 Index of Water Quality
Figure 3. Query Results
from TCEQ Surface
Water Quality Viewer.
Image shows the way we
accessed the various HUC
codes of the impaired
streams.
SNC & NC: not in compliance with an environmental requirement in the Clean Water Act (EPA,2019)
Average Flow: Average flow from all discharge points of a facility (EPA, 2019)
Each quarter with significant noncompliance (SNC) = 5 points, Each quarter with noncompliance (NC) = 3 points,
Average Flow (major facilities) =
!"#$%&# '()* )+ ,-$$#./ +%,0(0/1
23 456
×5 9:;,
Average Flow (minor facilities) =
!"#$%&# '()* )+ ,-$$#./ +%,0(0/1
2 456
×5 9:;,
Impairment Index = SNC points+ NC Points+ AVG Flow points