Adapting the RMP to Answer the Important Questions

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Adapting the RMP to Answer the Important
Questions

• Keeping the Program Relevant

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Thanks to

• Water Board Staff
• Technical Review Committee and Workgroups
• Steering Committee
• Pulse of the Estuary Team

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Overview

• Monitoring as Part of Adaptive Management
• What Have We Learned?
• Which Questions Remain?
• Moving Toward Proactive Management

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The Three Cs
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1. What should cleanup targets be?
1. How do pollutants compare to various
guidelines?
2. Which pollutants accumulate faster than they
can be degraded?
2. Can pollutant changes be linked to changing
inputs?
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3. Which factors influence effects of specific
pollutants on biota?
3. Which pollutants bioaccumulate?

4. What is the relative magnitude of pollutant
inputs from different pathways?
4. Can data from a few high intensity sites be
projected to other watersheds?
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How Much Have We Learned?
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Better understanding of relative loadings from
various sources and transport pathways
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• 2000
• 2005

Suspended Sediment Hg
PCBs
Rivers (11 kg) Small Tribs?
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Lessons, continued

• Management actions produce results
• Estuary and watershed processes affect beneficial
  use restoration
  
• Emerging pollutants require increased attention

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The Evolution of Management Priorities for
Restoring the Chemical Integrity of Water
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Institutional and Communication Lessons
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Information Clients

• Water Boards
• RMP Participants
• EPA
• Neighbors
• State Legislature
• Congress

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• Traditional Fix problems after they have
  become emergencies in the public eye TMDLs
  Forever!
  
• New Anticipate problems through surveillance,
  develop predictive recovery models, emphasize
  risk assessment and problem prevention

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Next Steps

• Systematic look at efficiencies
• Modeling the system is now possible!