Bioassessment and Biocriteria Program Status for Massachusetts: Streams and Wadeable Rivers
State Program Contact
Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection - Water Quality Assessments
Water Quality Standards
WQS Information
The link to Massachusetts' WQS that are in effect for Clean Water Act purposes is provided. These are the WQS approved by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
The state of Massachusetts provided information and links to sections of their administrative code on designated aquatic life use, biological criteria, antidegradation as well as technical support documents and information on its bioassessment and biocriteria programs. These are included for your convenience and may or may not reflect the most recently EPA approved WQS.
Designated Aquatic Life Uses
Cold water/warm water in progress
Biological Criteria
__X__ Narrative statement
_____ Numeric
_____ No criteria
Antidegradation Policy
Use of Biocriteria or bioassessments not included in antidegradation policy.
Biological Assessment
What biological assemblages are used in the bioassessment program?
Benthic macroinvertebrates, fish, and periphyton; eel grass for estuarine/coastal
Are bioassessments used to support 303(d) listings?
Yes. Listing Methodology: Massachusetts Consolidated Assessment and Listing Methodology (CALM) Guidance (pdf) (October 2022)
How are assemblages used to make impairment decisions?
Described in Massachusetts Consolidated Assessment and Listing Methodology (CALM) Guidance (pdf)
Other uses of biocriteria or bioassessments within the water quality program:
Refining ALU, TMDL development and assessment, non-point source assessments, and 305(b) surface water condition assessments
Technical Support Information and Documents
Reference condition
A human disturbance gradient was developed, and reference condition was defined during the development of benthic macroinvertebrate indices of biotic integrity (IBI) for low and high gradient streams. Refer to the cited IBI development documents for more information.
Biocriteria
Indices of biotic integrity (IBI) using the benthic macroinvertebrate community were developed for high and low gradient streams in 2020/21. These IBI will be included in the 2022 CALM (in preparation) and used for Aquatic Life Use assessment. The following documents are in management review and will be placed on MassDEP’s website when final.
Technical reference material
- Block, B., J. Stamp, and B. Jessup. 2020. Calibration of Indices of Biotic Integrity for 300-organism macroinvertebrate riffle habitat samples in Massachusetts freshwater wadeable streams (pdf). Prepared for the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection by Tetra Tech. Montpelier, VT.
- Jessup, B., and J. Stamp. 2020. Development of Indices of Biotic Integrity for Assessing Macroinvertebrate Assemblages in Massachusetts Freshwater Wadeable Streams (pdf). Prepared for the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection by Tetra Tech. Montpelier, VT.
- Jessup, B., B. Block, and J. Stamp. 2021. Development of an Index of Biotic Integrity for Macroinvertebrates in Freshwater Low Gradient Wadeable Streams in Massachusetts Draft Report (pdf). Prepared for the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection by Tetra Tech. Montpelier, VT.
- Stamp, J., and B. Jessup. 2020. Establishing numeric biological condition thresholds (pdf). Prepared for the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection by Tetra Tech. Montpelier, VT.
Stressor identification/causal analysis approach
Causal analysis