Bioassessment and Biocriteria Program Status for Montana: Streams and Wadeable Rivers
State Program Contact
Montana Department of Environmental Quality
Water Quality Standards
WQS Information
The link to Montana's 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 Montana 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
Two use categories – warm water versus cold water fishes
- Growth and propagation of salmonid fishes and associated aquatic life
- Growth and propagation of non-salmonid fishes and associated aquatic life
Biological Criteria
_____ Narrative
_____ Numeric
__X__ 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 and periphyton
Are bioassessments used to support 303(d) listings?
Yes. Listing methodology:
- Assessment Methodology for Determining Wadeable Stream Impairment Due to Excess Nitrogen and Phosphorus Levels (pdf)
- The Montana Department of Environmental Quality Western Montana Sediment Assessment Method: Considerations, Physical and Biological Parameters, and Decision Making (pdf)
- Montana’s DEQ Standard Operating Procedures
How are assemblages used to make impairment decisions?
Biological assemblages are used as primary or secondary indicators depending on the assessment method. Overall, a weight approach is used in the nutrient and sediment assessment methods.
Other uses of biocriteria or bioassessment within the water quality program:
Criteria development and criteria refinement
Technical Support Information and Documents:
Reference condition
A detailed explanation can be found in the document listed. Briefly, there are 2 tiers for reference site definitions and characterization.
- Tier 1 – Natural Condition: The characteristics of a waterbody that is unaltered from its natural state, or there are no detectable human-caused changes. This is the highest attainable biological, chemical, physical and riparian conditions for waterbodies
- Tier 2 – Minimally Impacted Condition: The characteristics of a waterbody in which the activities of man have made small changes. Minimally impacted conditions can be used to describe attainable biological, chemical, physical and riparian habitat conditions for waterbodies with similar watershed characteristics within similar geographic regions and represent the water body’s best potential condition.
The identification criteria (cold water versus warm water) is based on two categories:
- Physical Habitat: (road densities, new and old timber harvests, % surface fines, sediment deposition, bank erosion and vegetation, permitted point sources, grazing use, mining activity, agricultural use, oil and gas activity)
- Best Professional Judgment: (anecdotal evidence from non-standard sources, field observations not listed as criteria, aesthetics, and other determinations
Technical reference material
Biocriteria
Not applicable.
Stressor identification/causal analysis approach
Response signatures - Diatom based metrics to determine if an impairment is caused by sediment or nutrients. Macroinvertebrates are used in a general biological integrity.