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Cache Creek, Bear Creek, and Harley Gulch TMDL

The Cache Creek, Bear Creek, and Harley Gulch Mercury Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) was adopted by the Central Valley Water Board as a Basin Plan Amendment on 21 October 2005. It included site-specific water quality objectives, an implementation plan for Sulphur Creek, designation of the Commercial and Sport Fishing Beneficial Use, and established the Cache Creek Watershed Mercury Program. It was approved by the State Water Resources Control Board on 19 July 2006 and the California Office of Administrative Law on 19 October 2006. The U.S. EPA approved the Cache Creek, Bear Creek, and Harley Gulch portions of the TMDL on 6 February 2007.

Documents on this page are available upon request. To request a copy please contact Lauren Smitherman at Lauren.Smitherman@waterboards.ca.gov or (916) 464-4668.

Project Information

Back to Central Valley TMDL Project page
  • The Cache Creek Watershed Mercury Program required an assessment of mercury-contaminated sediments in the upper Cache Creek watershed.  Water Board staff has completed the survey and links to the reports are provided below:
    • Mercury Inventory in the Cache Creek Canyon, Bear Creek Confluence to Rumsey (March 2011)
    • Bear Creek Mercury Inventory (June 2009)
    • Mercury Inventory in the Cache Creek Canyon (February 2008)
  • Timeline
    • U.S. EPA Approval Letter of Site-Specific Water Quality Objectives and COMM Beneficial Use (6 February 2007)
    • U.S. EPA Approval Letter of TMDL (6 February 2007)
    • Final Basin Plan Amendment, Res. No. R5-2005-0146 (21 October 2005)
    • Final staff report for Basin Plan Amendments for Control of Mercury in the Cache Creek Watershed (October 2005)
    • Cache Creek 10-year Floodplain Definition Report
    • Staff Report - Cache Creek, Bear Creek, and Harley Gulch Mercury TMDL (September 2004)
  • Sulphur Creek TMDL and Basin Plan Amendment Webpage
    • The Mercury Control Plan for Sulphur Creek was not approved as a TMDL within the Cache Creek, Bear Creek, and Harley Gulch TMDL; however, the Cache Creek Watershed Mercury Control Program’s analysis and implementation options within the Basin Plan Amendment were approved.

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