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Blackfoot River Subbasin

DataDetails
Hydrologic Unit Codes17040207
Size1,000 square miles (640,000 acres)
Water Bodies with EPA-Approved TMDLs (Category 4a)Angus Creek; Bacon and Upper Bacon Creek; Bear Canyon; Bear Creek; Blackfoot River; Brush Creek; Cabin Creek; Campbell Canyon; Cedar Creek; Chicken Creek; Collett Creek; Corrailsen Creek; Corral Creek; Coyote Creek; Crooked Creek; Daves Creek;
Deadman Creek; Diamond Creek; Dry Valley Creek; Goodheart Creek; Grave Creek; Grizzly Creek; Jones Creek; Lanes Creek; Little Blackfoot River; Lower, Middle, and Upper Diamond Creeks; Lower Chippy Creek; Lower Johnson Creek; Lower, Middle,
and Upper Sheep Creeks; Maybe Creek; Meadow Creek; Poison Creek; Rasmussen Creek; Rawlins Creek; Sawmill Creek; Slug Creek; State Land Creek; Stewart Canyon; Sunday Creek; Thompson Creek; Timber Creek; Trail Creek and tributaries; Trail
Creek side channel; Upper and Lower Angus Creeks; Upper and Lower Kendall Creek; Upper Trail Creek; Warbonnet Creek; Wolverine Creek; Wood Creek
Beneficial Uses AffectedCold water aquatic life, salmonid spawning
Major Land UsesDryland and irrigated agriculture, livestock grazing, phosphate mining
Date Approved by EPAMay 2002 Approval Letter
Date Addendum Approved by EPADecember 2007 EPA Approval Letter
Date Addendum Approved by EPAOctober 2013 EPA Approval Letter

Subbasin Characteristics

The Blackfoot River subbasin is located in southeastern Idaho. Historically, these water bodies sustained several beneficial uses. All streams supported cold water aquatic life, agriculture water supply, and secondary contact recreation. The bigger streams also supported primary contact recreation and most streams maintained spawning populations of salmonids. Domestic water supply is a designated use in the Blackfoot River above the reservoir. Current information suggests that some beneficial uses, such as cold water aquatic life and salmonid spawning, are impaired and not fully supported in several streams in the subbasin.

Sources of pollutant input above natural levels have been identified from various reports. Sediment input has been caused by agricultural and livestock practices, changes in the natural hydrograph, roads, mining activities, and mass wasting (e.g., landslides). Agriculture, grazing, and recreation (human wastes linked to camping areas) have been associated with nutrient input into Blackfoot River subbasin streams.

2001 Subbasin Assessment and TMDL

TMDLs were developed for sediment and nutrients. The US Environmental Protection Agency considers certain unnatural conditions, including flow alteration, that are not the result of the discharge of a specific pollutant as “pollution.” Since a TMDL is not required for a water body impaired by pollution, but not a specific pollutant, a TMDL was not developed for flow alteration.

2001 TMDL: Streams and Pollutants for Which TMDLs Were Developed

Stream Pollutants
Blackfoot River Sediment, nutrients
Wolverine Creek Sediment, nutrients
Jones Creek Sediment, nutrients
Brush Creek Sediment
Slug Creek Sediment
Dry Valley Creek Sediment
Angus Creek Sediment
Lanes Creek Sediment
Diamond Creekk Sediment

2007 Addendum

This document addresses temperature impairment in Brush Creek. The Brush Creek watershed is in the northern portion of the Blackfoot River subbasin. Potential natural vegetation temperature TMDLs were developed for two assessment units of Brush Creek. The goal of these TMDLs is to restore riparian vegetation to natural levels, thereby increasing stream shading and lowering stream temperatures.

2007 Addendum: Streams and Pollutants for Which TMDLs Were Developed

Stream Pollutants
Brush Creek Temperature

2013 Addendum

In the Blackfoot River subbasin, 54 assessment units (AUs) were listed as impaired in Category 5 of the 2010 Integrated Report. The causes include sediment (23 AUs), bacteria (22 AUs), selenium (17 AUs), dissolved oxygen (2 AUs), temperature (11 AUs), and combined biota/habitat bioassessments (4 AUs). This document addresses all of those sediment, bacteria, dissolved oxygen, and combined biota/habitat bioassessments and two of the temperature listings on 44 of the AUs.

2013 Addendum: Streams and Pollutants for Which TMDLs Were Developed

StreamPollutants
Deadman CreekSediment
Grave CreekSediment
Warbonnet CreekSediment, E. coli
Wood CreekSediment
Coyote CreekSediment
Sunday CreekSediment
Corral CreekE. coli
Chicken CreekSediment
Bear CreekSediment
Sawmill CreekE. coli
Thompson CreekSediment, E. coli
Collett CreekSediment, E. coli
Poison CreekSediment, E. coli
Little Blackfoot RiverSediment
State Land CreekSediment
Blackfoot RiverTemperature
Lower Johnson CreekSediment
Goodheart CreekSediment
Diamond CreekE. coli
Lower Chippy CreekTemperature
Angus CreekE. coli
Clarks CutTemperature
Crooked CreekSediment
Rawlins CreekSediment, E. coli
Cedar CreekSediment, E. coli
Jones CreekSediment

Subbasin Documents

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DEQ Pocatello Regional Office
444 Hospital Way, #300
Pocatello, ID 83201
Ph: (208) 236-6160
Fax: (208) 236-6168
Toll Free: (888) 655-6160

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