In 1997, the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) completed a report entitled "A Strategic Environmental Quality Monitoring Program for Michigan's Surface Waters" (Strategy).  This Strategy describes the monitoring activities that are necessary for a comprehensive assessment of water quality in Michigan's surface waters.  One component of the Strategy is expanded and improved monitoring of biological integrity and physical habitat. 

This program element includes all monitoring conducted for fish and benthic invertebrate community structure, nuisance aquatic plants, algae, and slimes, and assessment of physical habitat.  Because biological communities integrate the cumulative effects of multiple environmental stresses, this element is an important tool for evaluating water quality.  The DEQ's goal in conducting the watershed surveys is to assess 80% of the stream and river miles in Michigan over a 5-year period.

The enhanced biological integrity and physical habitat monitoring is consistent with existing DEQ programs and activities.  For example, the DEQ uses the existing 5-year basin units defined by the NPDES permitting program, which includes 45 watershed units based on drainage to the four Great Lakes.  Monitoring activities in each watershed include not only biological integrity, but also fish and wildlife contaminant studies, water chemistry, and sediment chemistry.  Integrating the enhanced biological monitoring with the other activities, within the framework of the five-year permitting cycle, will ensure that the monitoring is closely linked with other DEQ programs and contributes to resource management decisions.

The specific objectives of biological integrity and physical habitat monitoring are to:

1. Determine whether waters of the state are attaining standards for aquatic life.
2. Assess the biological integrity of the waters of the state.
3. Determine the extent to which sedimentation in surface waters is impacting indigenous aquatic life.
4. Determine whether the biological integrity of surface waters is changing with time.
5. Assess the effectiveness of Best Management Practices and other restoration efforts in protecting and/or restoring biological integrity and physical habitat.
6. Evaluate the overall effectiveness of DEQ programs in protecting the biological integrity of surface waters.
7. Identify waters that are high quality, as well as those that are not meeting standards.
8. Identify the waters of the state that are impacted by nuisance aquatic plants, algae, and bacterial slimes.

The biological integrity and physical habitat element consists of several components that, in combination, provide data necessary to achieve these objectives.  These include:

• Watershed surveys (consistent with the 5-year basin cycle);
• Development of a rapid assessment procedure for nonwadable rivers; and
• Development of a trend monitoring procedure for biological communities.

Rapid, qualitative biological assessments of wadable streams and rivers are conducted using the Great Lakes and Environmental Assessment Section Procedure 51 , which compares fish and benthic invertebrate communities at a site to the communities that are expected at an un-impacted, or reference, site.  This is a key tool used by DEQ to determine whether waterbodies are attaining Michigan Water Quality Standards.  However, this procedure cannot be used on nonwadable rivers.  Therefore, the DEQ established a contract with Michigan State University scientists to develop a procedure for assessing aquatic communities in nonwadable rivers.     This project is scheduled for completion in December 2002.

Because Procedure 51 is meant to be a qualitative, rapid assessment tool, the DEQ established a contract with the Great Lakes Environmental Center to develop a statistically valid sample design and procedure for detection of trends using benthic macroinvertebrates.  This project is scheduled for completion in January 2003.

All biological community data are entered into a DEQ Microsoft Access database.   Biological and habitat data collected as part of the 5-year watershed surveys are summarized in watershed reports.  The list of these reports is stored in a database which will be accessible to the public via the Surface Water Quality Division's web site.  Final reports will be prepared for the nonwadable river rapid assessment procedure and the biological community trend monitoring procedure, when these projects are completed.  These reports also will be accessible via the web site.

Related Links

• Biological Trend Monitoring Design Report
• SWQAS Procedure 51(Habitat Assessment)
• SWQAS Report List

For more information about the watershed surveys, contact Kevin Goodwin at (517) 335-4185 or goodwink@michigan.gov