Biomonitoring Demonstrates the Success of Wastewater Treatment Plant Upgrade

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Biomonitoring Demonstrates the Success of
Wastewater Treatment Plant Upgrade

• Prepared by Martin Rosenfeld
• New York Watershed Science and Technical
  Conference
• September 15, 2009

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The Story in a Nutshell

• For years, WWTP effluent contained a high level
  of a contaminant
• Result Seriously degraded invertebrate
  community
• 2007-8 plant upgrade greatly
• improved water quality
• leading to a greatly improved invertebrate
  community

x
Yay!
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Yorktown Heights WWTP

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Hallocks Mill Brook
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The Bugs
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Benthic Macroinvertebrates

• No backbone
• Visible to naked eye
• Associated with substrate
• Found in all aquatic environments
• Exs Mayflies, caddisflies, stoneflies, midges,
  some beetles, worms

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Yorktown Heights WWTP

• F Constructed in 1963
• F Upgraded in 1974 and 1985
• F Over the years, recurrent problems with
  various analytes exceeding their SPDES limits
• F Most serious, in terms of impact on benthic
  community, have been the high levels of
  ammonia present in the plants effluent

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Toxic Effects of Ammonia on Freshwater Organisms

• Damage to gill epithelium, causing asphyxiation
• Reduction of oxygen-transporting capacity of
  blood
• Disruption of osmoregulatory activity
• Repression of immune system
• ? NYS Ammonia Standard ?
• At the pH and temperature ranges typically found
  in Hallocks Mill Brook, standard for the
  protection of aquatic life is 0.002-0.020 mg/L

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Annual Average Ammonia Concentrations, 2000-2006
NYS AWQS, 0.002-0.020 mg/L
WWTP max Hallocks Mill max
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Biomonitoring Sample Collection and Data

• Kick sample in riffle habitat
• 100 count subsample
• Organisms identified and enumerated
• Metrics generated
• Total taxa
• Total mayfly, stonefly, caddisfly taxa (EPT)
• Percent Model Affinity (PMA)
• Hilsenhoff Biotic Index (HBI)

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Assessment Categories
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Assessment Scores Hallocks Mill vs. All Other
Streams
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AssessmentsHallocks Mill vs. All Other Sites

• No Non or Slight assessments at Hallocks Mill
  below WWTP
• No Severe assessments at any other stream
• Maximum Hallocks Mill score 3.75
• Minimum score for All Others 3.47

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Hallocks Mill Invertebrate Community vs. NYS
Model, 2007
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38.8
65.7
96.1
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Organisms in Hallocks Mill Brook Sensitive to
Pollution

• Of 1500 IDd below discharge, 3 considered
  sensitive
• 1 mayfly from Site 105 in 1994
• 1 caddisfly from Site 105 in 1998
• 1 mayfly from Site 126 in 1999
• No mayflies ever collected from Site 125

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WWTP Enhancements, 2006-2007

• Construction begins in late 2006 to reduce levels
  of ammonia, BOD, TSS, and TP to levels specified
  in SPDES permit
• Ammonia and BOD levels begin dropping in November
  2007, other analytes in summer 2008
• Construction effectively complete in June 2008

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Annual Average Ammonia Concentrations, 2000-2009
NYS AWQS, 0.002-0.020 mg/L
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Annual Average Ammonia Concentrations, 2000-2009
NYS AWQS, 0.002-0.020 mg/L
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Annual Average Ammonia Concentrations, 2000-2009
Hallocks Mill 0.159 mg/L
WWTP 0.939 mg/L
NYS AWQS, 0.002-0.020 mg/L
WWTP 0.103 mg/L Hallocks Mill lt0.020 mg/L
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Hallocks Mill Invertebrate Community, 2008

• No significant change at Site 104
• Highest score ever at Site 105 (4.38) but still
  moderately impaired. No sensitive organisms
• Site 125 BIG changes

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Site 125 Assessment Scores
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Site 125 Assessment Scores
Highest score ever in Hallocks Mill Brook!
First ever slightly impaired assessment in
Hallocks Mill Brook below the outfall!
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Site 125 vs. NYS Model
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Site 125 vs. NYS Model
74.4 similarity
? 1/3 of all mayflies collected in 2008 were
Ephemerellidae ?
? Extremely sensitive to pollution (TV 2)
? Uncommon anywhere in NYCs East of Hudson
watershed
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Hallocks Mill Invertebrate Community, 2009

• No significant change at Site 104
• Site 105 MAYFLIES PRESENT!
• Site 125 More BIG changes

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Site 125 Assessment Scores
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Site 125 Assessment Scores
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Site 125 Assessment Scores
7.12 is new high score, approaching non-impaired
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Average Annual Assessment Scores Hallocks Mill
vs. All Other Streams
7.12
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Other Highlights at Site 125 in 2009

• Ephemerellid mayflies still present
• Sensitive caddisfly (Glossosoma) also present
• 9 EPT overall, the most ever recorded in Hallocks
  Mill above or below the WWTP

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Site 105 Assessment Scores
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Site 105 Assessment Scores
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Site 105 Assessment Scores
First ever slightly impaired assessment at Site
105!
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Site 105 Assessment Scores
Site 104 and 105 scores virtually identical
Site 104
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Site 105 vs. NYS Model
The 6 mayflies in 2009 is 6X as many as the total
number recorded at the site since 1994
and 5 of them are very sensitive organisms 3
Heptageniidae (TV 3) and 2 Isonychia (TV 2)
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Conclusions

• Improvements in plants treatment technology
  reduced average ammonia effluent concentrations
  by gt99, leading to a similar drop in instream
  concentrations.
• After reductions, macroinvertebrate community
  below outfall improved dramatically.
• Changes not likely attributable to changes
  upstream.
• These data provide convincing evidence that the
  improved treatment of the plants effluent has
  led to a much improved benthic community in
  Hallocks Mill Brook.

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Acknowledgments

• Rocco Mastronardi, Andrew Stor, Christian Pace,
  Charles Cutietta-Olson, Scott Cardineau, Melissa
  Hamilton, Gwen Kloosterman, NYCDEP Brewster
  Laboratory, Bryce McCann, David Lounsbury, Dale
  Borchert, Jim Mayfield, Lorraine Janus
• Thank you all!

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The deliriously happy members of the Hallocks
Mill Mayfly Association thank you for coming!
Thank You!
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Biomonitoring

• Characterizes the structure and function of
  biological assemblages to assess environmental
  conditions in an ecosystem
• Benthic macroinvertebrates, algae, fish have all
  formed the basis of biomonitoring programs
• DEPs biomonitoring program uses benthic
  macroinvertebrates, following protocols developed
  by the NYS Stream Biomonitoring Unit

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Fishfly (Nigronia)
Mayfly (Isonychia)
Caddisfly (Philopotamidae)
Water penny beetle (Psephenus)
Stonefly (Perlidae)
Mayflies
Baetidae
Maccaffertium
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Biomonitoring Metrics

• Total Taxa
• Total EPT (Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera,
  Trichoptera)
• Percent Model Affinity (PMA)
• Hilsenhoff Biotic Index (HBI)

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Organisms in Hallocks Mill Brook Sensitive to
Pollution

• Of the approximately 1500 invertebrates
  identified in the stream below the WWTPs
  discharge, 3 (1/5 of 1) can be considered
  sensitive
• 1 mayfly from Site 105 in 1994
• 1 caddisfly from Site 105 in 1998
• 1 mayfly from Site 126 in 1999
• No mayflies, or any other sensitive
  organisms, have ever been collected from
  Site 125.

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Hallocks Mill Brook

• High impervious surface immediately upstream of
  site above plants outfall
• High conductivity 663 µmS/cm at site above
  outfall and 853 µmS/cm at site below in 2009
• Sandy, gravelly substrate
• High degree of embeddedness

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Average Metric Scores,
1994-2007
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Annual Average Ammonia Concentrations, 2000-2009
Nov. WWTP 2.211 mg/L
NYS AWQS, 0.002-0.020 mg/L
Oct. WWTP 29.839 mg/L
Nov. HM Bk 0.165 mg/L
Oct. HM Bk 8.65 mg/L
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Benthic Macroinvertebrates

• No backbone
• Visible to naked eye
• Associated with substrate
• Found in all aquatic environments
• Exs Mayflies, caddisflies, stoneflies, midges,
  some beetles, worms
• Good indicators of water quality

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Hallocks Mill Sample Dates

• Sites 104 and 105 1994, 1995, 1998, 1999,
• 2000, 2004,
  2006-9
• Sites 125 1999, 2000, 2006-9
• Sites 125 and 126 1999, 2000