“Good Luck Fixing the Problem”: Small Low-Income Community Participation in Collaborative Groundwater Governance and Implications for Drinking Water Source Protection

Society and Natural Resources (Routledge) | June 10th, 2020

There is increasing interest in the potential of source water protection to address chronic challenges with small systems and rural drinking water provision. Such a plann

There is increasing interest in the potential of source water protection to address chronic challenges with small systems and rural drinking water provision. Such a planning and management approach to increasing safe drinking water access, however, will likely require leveraging multi-stakeholder collaborative governance venues to this effect. This paper investigates the prospects of doing so using the case of California’s groundwater reform process known as the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act or SGMA. Interviews with drinking water stakeholders from small low-income communities in the San Joaquin Valley show how existing power and resource disparities limit the prospects of integrating rural drinking water priorities into regional planning. Long-term, more fundamental changes will be needed to meaningfully transform water management in this direction. Short-term state intervention is needed to protect equity and public good goals, raising potential contradictions between devolved water management and improved drinking water access that need to be addressed.

2015 Annual Monitoring Report

San Francisco Estuary Institute (SFEI) | July 1st, 2016

The Regional Monitoring Program for Water Quality in San Francisco Bay (RMP) is the primary source for long-term contaminant monitoring information for the San Francisco

The Regional Monitoring Program for Water Quality in San Francisco Bay (RMP) is the primary source for long-term contaminant monitoring information for the San Francisco Bay. The RMP is an innovative and collaborative effort among the scientific community, the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board (Water Board), and the regulated discharger community. The Program was initiated by the Water Board as a pilot study in 1989 and has been collecting water, sediment, and bivalve tissue data since its official inception in 1993. Regular monitoring of sport fish tissue and bird eggs for toxic contaminants was incorporated into the Program in 1997 and 2006, respectively. The Program monitors the different matrices included in “status and trends” monitoring on varying schedules. Additional monitoring occurs as part of short-term “special studies” or pilot studies focused on new regions, matrices, or contaminants of immediate or increasing regulatory interest. In 2015, the RMP collected only water data as part of “status and trends” monitoring. A pilot study was also conducted to collect sediment data from the Bay margins. Bird egg monitoring was originally scheduled to be conducted in 2015, but was delayed until 2016. The purpose of this report is to document RMP monitoring activities in 2015. The report is organized into chapters on water and sediment. Each chapter contains information on: • The locations where these samples were collected, • The field sampling methods, • The target analytes, laboratories, and analytical methods for each matrix, and • Any problems encountered or non-conformances to planned procedures.

2016 Quality Assurance Program Plan for the Regional Monitoring Program for Water Quality in San Francisco Bay

San Francisco Estuary Institute (SFEI) | September 14th, 2016

The Regional Monitoring Program for Water Quality in the San Francisco Estuary (RMP) was created to provide longterm monitoring information on ecosystem health in the E

The Regional Monitoring Program for Water Quality in the San Francisco Estuary (RMP) was created to provide longterm monitoring information on ecosystem health in the Estuary. The impetus for the program development was a resolution by the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Board to require dischargers in the Bay Area regulated under the National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) program to participate in regional monitoring. Contribution to the program constitutes compliance with the requirement to participate. Elimination of certain permit requirements for individual permits offset the requirement for continued participation.

2016 Regional Monitoring Program (RMP) Bird Egg Samples Quality Assurance Report.

San Francisco Estuary Institute (SFEI) | December 13th, 2017

 In 2016, bird egg samples were collected from 4 areas for terns with 84 individual samples analyzed for Hg and 12 composites analyzed for Se. Samples for cormorants wer

 In 2016, bird egg samples were collected from 4 areas for terns with 84 individual samples analyzed for Hg and 12 composites analyzed for Se. Samples for cormorants were collected from 3 areas, with 9 composites analyzed for Hg, Se, PFCs, PCBs, and PBDEs. The sampling and analysis was conducted by the Regional Monitoring Program for Water Quality in San Francisco Bay. The details of the cruise and sample collection methods are described in the RMP Quality Assurance Program Plan, cruise plans, cruise reports, and field sampling reports. These documents are available from the SFEI website (http://www.sfei.org/programs/sf-bay-regional-monitoring-program). 

2016 Regional Monitoring Program (RMP) Bivalve Samples Quality Assurance Report

San Francisco Estuary Institute (SFEI) | December 31st, 2017

 In 2016, bivalve samples were collected from 8 stations (including a reference control/ bivalve source site) for the Regional Monitoring Program for Water Quality in Sa

 In 2016, bivalve samples were collected from 8 stations (including a reference control/ bivalve source site) for the Regional Monitoring Program for Water Quality in San Francisco Bay. The details of the cruise and sample collection methods are described in the RMP Quality Assurance Program Plan, cruise plans, cruise reports, and field sampling reports. These documents are available from the SFEI website.

2016 Regional Monitoring Program (RMP) Sturgeon Derby Study Sampling & Analysis Plan

San Francisco Estuary Institute (SFEI) | February 1st, 2016

A second year of Sturgeon Derby monitoring will be conducted in collaboration with the 32nd annual Original Sturgeon Derby held by the Foundation Sportsman’s Club out

A second year of Sturgeon Derby monitoring will be conducted in collaboration with the 32nd annual Original Sturgeon Derby held by the Foundation Sportsman’s Club out of Bay Point, CA. The sturgeon derby and tissue sampling will occur on February 67, 2016. Tissue samples from female white sturgeon will be collected, and samples from up to fifteen sturgeon will be analyzed. The Derby offers an opportunity to collect a variety of tissue samples from fish caught for the competition that are otherwise unavailable. This will allow for comparison between selenium concentrations measured in tissues that are easy to obtain nonlethally (muscle plugs, fin rays) and those that are not, but may be of greater interest toxicologically (ovaries, liver) or analyzed for microchemistry (otoliths, for comparison with fin rays). If approved, additional collection of muscle fillet samples will also contribute to a better understanding of the relationship between muscle fillet and muscle plug selenium concentrations. Analysis of tissue samples for stable isotopes will also provide information on diet and habitat use by the sturgeon. Otolith microchemistry will be conducted to support development of a method for fin rays, which can be collected from sturgeon nonlethally during future monitoring efforts. This study will be performed as a collaboration between SFEI (with RMP funding), USFWS, USGS, UC Davis, and Stantec. The purpose of this Sampling and Analysis Plan is to outline the details for how the samples will be collected, handled, and analyzed by the various parties involved with the study. Additional pathology samples taken by USFWS will not be included in this document, except where needed to inform the collection of other samples.

2016 Regional Monitoring Program Update: A Report of the Regional Monitoring Program for Water Quality in San Francisco Bay

San Francisco Estuary Institute (SFEI) | July 1st, 2016

Billions of dollars are at stake in the decisions that society makes regarding activities that are directly intended to protect Bay water quality. The region has made hu

Billions of dollars are at stake in the decisions that society makes regarding activities that are directly intended to protect Bay water quality. The region has made huge investments to build and operate the infrastructure to collect and treat the region’s municipal and industrial wastewater, and continued investment at a similar scale will be needed to maintain, upgrade, and operate this infrastructure to serve a growing Bay Area population. The region has spent and will spend comparably large sums to manage stormwater and establish green infrastructure in our cities to minimize the adverse water quality impacts of stormwater on the Bay. Large investments have been and will be made to manage contaminated sediment in the Bay, both at sites identified for cleanup and for dredging to maintain channels for commercial and recreational vessels. Billions more are at stake in decisions regarding activities that influence Bay water quality as unintentional side-effects. Commercial product formulation and usage (including pesticides, pharmaceuticals, personal care products, electrical equipment, home furnishings, automobile components, and many, many others), sediment management, water supply management, energy production, and habitat restoration and management are all immense and essential enterprises that have a tremendous influence on Bay water quality.

2016 Updated ambient concentrations of toxic chemicals in San Francisco Bay area sediments

San Francisco Estuary Institute (SFEI) | February 26th, 2016

 The purpose of this memo is to communicate the most recent results for the ambient concentrations of mercury, Total PAHs and Total PCBs in San Francisco Bay area sedime

 The purpose of this memo is to communicate the most recent results for the ambient concentrations of mercury, Total PAHs and Total PCBs in San Francisco Bay area sediments.  Regulation of dredging and dredged material disposal or reuse under the San Francisco Bay Long Term Management Strategy for Dredging (LTMS) involves, in part, evaluation of sediment chemistry characteristics. For dredged material in California, for most chemicals, there are no numeric sediment quality standards or objectives that define chemical suitability for disposal or reuse at particular placement sites.1 Consequently, Bay dredged sediments are compared to various published screening values and other guidelines, to reference site chemistry, and where available and appropriate, to ambient sediment contaminant concentrations for the Bay as a whole. Therefore, starting in 2011, the LTMS agencies have asked SFEI to calculate the ambient concentrations for a small subset of sediment contaminants that are either subject to TMDL limits for in-Bay dredged material disposal or are relevant for bioaccumulation testing for dredging (DMMO, n.d.). 

2017 Bay Margins Sediment Study Cruise Plan

San Francisco Estuary Institute (SFEI) | July 3rd, 2017

2017 Margins Microplastics Cruise Report

San Francisco Estuary Institute (SFEI) | October 2nd, 2017

This report contains information on the summer field sampling efforts conducted by Coastal Conservation & Research (CC&R) in support of two Regional Monitoring Pr

This report contains information on the summer field sampling efforts conducted by Coastal Conservation & Research (CC&R) in support of two Regional Monitoring Program (RMP) studies: South Bay Margins and Moore Microplastics. The South Bay Margins is the second round of a larger San Francisco Bay study collecting sediment and water in shallow margin areas of the bay. The first round was conducted in Central Bay in 2015. The Moore Microplastics study is a collaborative effort with the Moore Foundation to collect sediment and fish samples in San Francisco and Tomales Bays. The work for both studies was contracted through the San Francisco Estuary Institute (SFEI) to CC&R. Since overall project management and sampling locations were coordinated between the two projects, activities from both studies will be presented as they occurred.