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EPA Region 10 Climate Change and TMDL Pilot - Project Research Plan
Citation:
Klein, S., J. Butcher, B. Duncan, AND H. Herron. EPA Region 10 Climate Change and TMDL Pilot - Project Research Plan. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC, EPA/600/R/13/028, 2013.
Impact/Purpose:
The primary objective of this project is to demonstrate a process to evaluate EPA’s decision-making needs for climate change adaptation under the CWA section 303(d) TMDL program. This project supports the implementation of EPA’s National Water Program 2012 Strategy: Response to Climate Change – March 2012 to help achieve EPA’s Vision Statement on Water Quality by promoting the management of sustainable surface water resources under changing climate conditions (USEPA 2012a). This project also provides the opportunity to explore the potential linkages between the TMDL process and climate change considerations. The risk assessment approach used in this project provides decision makers with a robust context and temporal sensitivity for including climate change adaption in their decision making. A Climate Change TMDL can be thought of as an embedded climate change risk assessment within a CWA section 303(d) TMDL. EPA’s final report that documents the process and analysis used in this pilot demonstration (climate change temperature TMDL for the SFNR) will assist other EPA regions and states to include climate change adaption in their CWA 303(d) temperature TMDL programs. USEPA (Environmental Protection Agency), Office of Water. 2012a. National Water Program 2012 Strategy: Response to Climate Change - Public Comment Draft. Pages 1-108. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington D.C. The primary objective of this project is to demonstrate a process to evaluate EPA’s decision-making needs for climate change adaptation under the CWA section 303(d) TMDL program. This project supports the implementation of EPA’s National Water Program 2012 Strategy: Response to Climate Change – March 2012 to help achieve EPA’s Vision Statement on Water Quality by promoting the management of sustainable surface water resources under changing climate conditions (USEPA 2012a). This project also provides the opportunity to explore the potential linkages between the TMDL process and climate change considerations. The risk assessment approach used in this project provides decision makers with a robust context and temporal sensitivity for including climate change adaption in their decision making. A Climate Change TMDL can be thought of as an embedded climate change risk assessment within a CWA section 303(d) TMDL. EPA’s final report that documents the process and analysis used in this pilot demonstration (climate change temperature TMDL for the SFNR) will assist other EPA regions and states to include climate change adaption in their CWA 303(d) temperature TMDL programs. USEPA (Environmental Protection Agency), Office of Water. 2012a. National Water Program 2012 Strategy: Response to Climate Change - Public Comment Draft. Pages 1-108. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington D.C.
Description:
Global climate change affects the fundamental drivers of the hydrological cycle. Evidence is growing that climate change will have significant ramifications for the nation’s freshwater ecosystems, as deviations in atmospheric temperature and precipitation patterns are more frequently recorded across the United States (Bates et al. 2008; Karl et al. 2009). For example, stream temperature is projected to increase in most rivers under climate change scenarios due in part to increases in air temperature, which, in turn, could adversely affect coldwater fish species such as salmon (Brekke et al. 2009). It is critical that watershed management, planning, and regulatory approaches incorporate climate change science and understanding to ensure holistic and accurate analysis.The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 10 and EPA’s Office of Research and Development (ORD) and Office of Water (OW) have launched a pilot research project to consider how projected climate change impacts could be incorporated into a TMDL and influence restoration plans. The pilot research project will use a temperature TMDL being developed for the South Fork Nooksack River (SFNR), in Washington, as the pilot TMDL for climate change analysis. An overarching goal of the pilot research project is to ensure that relevant findings and methodologies related to climate change are incorporated into the SFNR Temperature TMDL in such a way that the regulatory objectives and timelines of the TMDL are also met.