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Assessing Implementation, Operation and Maintenance of Management Measures

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III. Techniques and Procedures for
Assessing Implementation, Operation
and Maintenance of Management
Measures
A. Overview

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As discussed in the introduction to this chapter, States will not be able to fully
interpret their water quality monitoring data without information regarding the
adequacy of management measure implementation, operation, and
maintenance. Section II of this chapter provides an overview of techniques for
assessing water quality and estimating pollution loads. The information
presented in this section is intended to complement that provided in Section II
to give State and local field personnel the basic information they need to
develop sound programs for assessing over time the success of management
measures in reducing pollution loads and improving water quality.
Successful management measures designed to control nonpoint source
pollutants require proper planning, design and implementation, and operation
and maintenance. This section presents a general discussion of the
procedures involved in ensuring the successful design and implementation of
various management measures, but is not intended to provide
recommendations regarding the operation and maintenance requirements for
any given management measure. Instead, this section is intended to provide
"inspectors" with ideas regarding the types of evidence to seek when
determining whether implementation or operation and maintenance are being
performed adequately.

B. Techniques
1. Implementation
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Proper planning is an essential step in implementing management measures
effectively and developing procedures that ensure that the measures are
achieved. During the planning stage, the optimal selection of management
practices for a specific discipline, such as forestry, is made following an
evaluation of several factors. Some of these factors include site conditions,
the water quality goals to be achieved, and the need to meet additional
objectives established by the user. In some cases, local and state measures
may directly require the use of certain practices or effectively dictate the use
of certain practices through the establishment of limits (e.g., application rates
for fertilizers and pesticides, annual erosion rates, land use controls, or
setback distances from environmentally sensitive areas). The key
components of the planning stage include:

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Site investigations by qualified personnel such as soil scientists,
biologists, wetlands scientists, hydrologists, and engineers;
Collection of pertinent data relative to the source category;
Identification of water quality goals;
Identification of land user objectives;
Identification of relevant State and local regulations;
Coordination with regulatory (and at times funding) agencies as
necessary; and
Identification of an appropriate series of practices that achieve both
the stated objectives and the applicable management measures.

Once the appropriate series of practices has been identified for use, it is
essential that each practice be properly designed and implemented for the
measures to be successful. This requires that design and installation be
conducted by qualified and experienced personnel. Design of the
management practices should be done in accordance with existing design
guidelines and standards outlined in technical guides, including those
developed by States and the Soil Conservation Service of the U.S.
Department of Agriculture. These standards include specific design criteria
and specifications that, when followed, will ensure the proper design of a
practice. The technical guides also include construction and implementation
specifications that provide detailed guidance to the installer. It is always
desirable to have a qualified person such as the designer present at certain
stages during installation to ensure that the designs are being interpreted
correctly and installed as specified.

2. Operation and Maintenance
A critical step in ensuring success of a management measure is proper
operation and maintenance (O&M) of each practice. Once a series of
practices has been designed and installed, it is crucial that the individual
practices be operated and maintained to ensure that they function as
intended. During the design process, an operation and maintenance plan that
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identifies continual procedures, schedules, and responsibility for operating
and maintaining the practices should be drafted.
Examples of procedures and techniques to ensure the successful
achievement of operation and maintenance are identified in the following
subsections. These procedures are generally applied by the landowner or
operator responsible for implementing the management measures. The
examples provided below are not mandatory but rather are presented as
illustrations of effective operation and maintenance practices. States may
wish to develop programs that ensure that O&M is performed by the
responsible individuals or entities.

a. Agriculture
Chapter 2 of this guidance identifies six major categories of agricultural
nonpoint pollution sources that affect coastal waters: erosion from cropland,
confined animal facilities, application of nutrients to cropland, application of
pesticides to cropland, land used for grazing, and irrigation of cropland. Table
8-3 (35k) presents examples of general O&M procedures to ensure the
performance of these measures.

b. Forestry
Forestry-related activities such as road construction, timber harvesting,
mechanical site preparation, prescribed burning, and fertilizer and pesticide
application contribute to nonpoint source pollution. These operations can
change water quality characteristics in waterbodies receiving drainage from
forest lands. Activities such as timber harvesting, mechanical site preparation,
and prescribed burning can accelerate erosion, resulting in increased
sediment concentrations.
There are O&M techniques that minimize hydrological impacts, temperature
elevations, the amount of sediment production, and the transport of sediment,
nutrients, pesticides, and other pollutants from forest lands into waterbodies.
These procedures typically involve periodic inspection and repair of the
roadways, streamside management areas, and drainage structures
(particularly after storm events); containment and proper use of chemicals
used during forestry activities; and revegetation of the disturbed areas. A
more detailed description of typical O&M procedures to ensure adequate
performance of forestry management measures is presented in Table 8-4
(37k).

c. Urban Sources

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Pollutants from urban sources include suspended solids, nutrients,
pathogens, metals, petroleum products, and various toxics. Generally, urban
nonpoint source control measures consist of nonstructural, and vegetative
practices, all of which must be properly maintained to ensure pollutant
removal. All of these practices should be periodically inspected. In the case of
structural practices and vegetative practices, inspections are conducted to
locate any structural defects and to perform cleaning operations.
Nonstructural practices should be reviewed periodically as guidelines are
updated or to determine the level of compliance with the guidelines. These
issues are summarized in Table 8-5 (45k).

d. Marinas and Recreational Boating
Potential adverse effects of recreational boating include degradation of water
quality, degradation of sediment quality, destruction of habitat, increased
turbidity, and shoreline and shallow area erosion. Proper design and
operation of marinas can result in reductions in these adverse impacts to the
environment. However, poorly designed or managed marinas can pose
additional environmental hazards including dissolved oxygen deficiencies;
concentration of pollutants from boat maintenance, operation, and repair;
transport of runoff from impervious surfaces into coastal waters; and
destruction of coastal habitat areas.
Management practices typically used to ensure proper operation and
maintenance of marinas and boats include both the development of regular
schedules for inspecting, cleaning, and repairing facilities and the
implementation of education programs for boaters and marina owners and
operators. Examples of O&M procedures and techniques for marinas and
recreational boating management measures are presented in Table 8-6 (20k).

e. Hydromodification
Operation and maintenance procedures for hydromodification management
measures typically involve periodic inspection of structures and features
(particularly after storm events), clearing of debris not needed for habitat, and
repair or replacement of structures and features as required. Examples of
procedures to ensure adequate operation and maintenance of management
measures during hydromodification are presented in Table 8-7 (11k).

f. Dams
Examples of typical O&M procedures for ensuring adequate performance of
management measures for dams are presented in Table 8-8 (15k).

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g. Shoreline Erosion
In shoreline and streambank areas requiring erosion protection from water
flow and wave action, shoreline structures such as breakwaters, jetties,
groins, bulkheads, and revetments are often constructed. In addition,
nonstructural measures (e.g., marsh creation and vegetative bank
stabilization) are often used in protecting shorelines and streambanks from
erosive forces. Typical O&M procedures for ensuring adequate performance
of these measures against erosion include monitoring for erosion, making
structural or nonstructural modifications as needed, performing periodic
inspection of the erosion control systems, and performing repair and
replacement as required. Table 8-9 presents examples of typical O&M
procedures for shoreline erosion management measures.

h. Protection of Existing Wetlands and Riparian Zones
Wetlands provide many beneficial uses including habitat, flood attenuation,
water quality improvement, shoreline stabilization, and ground-water
recharge. Wetlands can play a critical role in reducing nonpoint source
pollution problems in open bodies of water by trapping or transforming
pollutants before releasing them to adjacent waters. Their role in water quality
includes processing, removing, transforming, and storing such pollutants as
sediment, nitrogen, phosphorus, pesticides, and certain heavy metals.
The loss of wetland and riparian areas as buffers between uplands and the
parent waterbody allows for more direct contribution of nonpoint source
pollutants to the aquatic ecosystem. Often, loss of these areas occurs at the
same time as the alteration of land features, which increases the amount of
surface water runoff. As a result, excessive fresh water, nutrients, sediments,
pesticides, oils, greases, and heavy metals from nearby land use activities
may be carried in runoff from storm events and discharged to surface and
ground water. Without wetlands these nonpoint source pollutants travel
downstream to coastal waters without the benefits of filtration and attenuation
that would normally occur in the wetland or riparian area.
Wetland and riparian areas also provide important habitat functions.
Protection of wetlands and riparian zones provides both nonpoint source
control and other corollary benefits of these natural aquatic systems although
adverse impacts on wetlands from nonpoint source pollutants can occur.
Such impacts can be minimized through pretreatment with stormwater
management practices. Land managers should, therefore, use proper
management techniques to protect and restore the multiple benefits of these
systems. Examples of typical O&M procedures for ensuring adequate
performance of measures to protect existing wetlands and riparian areas are
provided in Table 8-10.

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i. Restoration of Wetland and Riparian Areas
Restoration of wetlands refers to reestablishing a wetland and its range of
functions where one previously existed by reestablishing the hydrology,
vegetation, and other habitat characteristics. Restoration of wetlands and
riparian areas in the watershed have been shown to result in nonpoint source
control benefits.
A combination of practices may be implemented to restore preexisting
functions in damaged and destroyed wetlands and riparian systems in areas
where they could serve a nonpoint source control function. Examples of
typical O&M procedures for ensuring adequate performance of measures to
restore wetlands and riparian areas are provided in Table 8-11.

j. Vegetated Treatment Systems
Runoff water quality management methods, referred to as biofiltration
methods, have been shown to provide significant reductions in pollutant
delivery. These include vegetated filter strips, grassed swales or vegetated
channels, and created wetlands. When properly installed and maintained,
biofiltration methods have been shown to effectively prevent the entry of
sediment and sediment-bound pollutants, nutrients, and oxygen-consuming
substances into waterbodies.
A combination of practices can be used to manage vegetated treatment
systems. Examples of typical O&M procedures for ensuring adequate
performance of these systems are provided in Table 8-12.

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