Monitoring Water Quality

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Monitoring Water Quality in San Francisco
Bay Lessons Learned After Ten Years of Regional
Monitoring
Jay A. Davis San Francisco Estuary Institute
Karen Taberski San Francisco Bay Regional Water
Quality Control Board
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Some ingredients to the success of the RMP

• FUNDING - 25,000,000 since 1993
• Collaboration
• Clear mission
• Adaptation
• Objectivity
• Sound science
• Involve top scientists
• Peer review
• Rigorous QA

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San Francisco Estuary Institute

• Independent, non-profit scientific organization
• Politically balanced Board of Directors
• Programs
• Contaminant Monitoring and Research Program
• Regional Monitoring Program
• Aquatic Pesticide Monitoring Program
• Regional Wetlands Monitoring Program
• Watershed Science Program
• Biological Invasions

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Regional Monitoring Program

• Innovative partnership between government,
  dischargers, and scientists
• 3 million/year of stable funding
• Funded by POTWs, stormwater agencies, industrial
  dischargers, dredgers
• World class monitoring
• Began in 1993
• Multifaceted program
• Major change in direction beginning in 1998 in
  response to 1997 Program Review

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The New RMP (1998-)

• Revised and better articulated objectives
• Stratified random sampling design for water and
  sediment
• Special studies on loading
• Expanded investigation of food web accumulation
  and effects
• Increased investigation of chemicals in current
  use
• Emphasis on developing mass budgets

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Sediment sampling stations, 2002-2006
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PCB Concentrations in San Francisco Bay Fish
Fillets, 2000
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Fish Comparisons to Screening Values, 2000
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Emerging Contaminants Flame Retardants
TetraBDE
PentaBDE
Triphenylphosphate
HexaBDE
Sources textiles, household and industrial
products Uses reduces flame capacity of
materials Concern endocrine system disruption,
bioaccumulation
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PCB in Bivalves, 1981-2000
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Mercury in Striped Bass, 1970 - 2000
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Water Quality Report Card for the Bay

• Getting Better
• DDT, chlordane
• Slow Improvement
• PCBs
• Staying the Same
• Mercury
• Getting Worse
• PBDEs (?), Pyrethroids (?)

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Predicted Long Term Trends in Bay PCB Mass with
Varying Loads
Annual load
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jay_at_sfei.org www.sfei.org