Comprehensive Monitoring and Assessment Strategy to ...

Comprehensive Monitoring and Assessment Strategy to Protect and Restore California's Water Quality

October 2005

State Water Resources Control Board and Regional Water Quality Control Boards

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4 Executive Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 List of Acronyms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

1. Strategy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Key Components and Essential Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Goals and Objectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Current Status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Implementation Priorities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

2. Monitoring Objectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Key Components and Essential Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Goals and Objectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Current Status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Implementation Priorities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

3. Monitoring Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Key Components and Essential Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Goals and Objectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Current Status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Implementation Priorities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

4. Indicators. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Key Components and Essential Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Goals and Objectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Current Status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Implementation Priorities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

5. Quality Assurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 Key Components and Essential Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 Goals and Objectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 Current Status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 Implementation Priorities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

6. Data Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Key Components and Essential Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Goals and Objectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Current Status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 Implementation Priorities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

7. Data Analysis and Assessment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 Key Components and Essential Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 Goals and Objectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 Current Status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 Implementation Priorities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

8. Reporting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 Key Components and Essential Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 Goals and Objectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 Current Status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 Implementation Priorities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

9. Programmatic Evaluation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 Key Components and Essential Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 Goals and Objectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 Current Status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 Implementation Priorities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

10. General Support and Infrastructure Planning . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 Key Components and Essential Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 Goals and Objectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 Current Status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 Implementation Priorities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

Core Implementation Priorities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

Literature Cited . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

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table of contents continued ...

Appendices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 A. SWAMP Report Card B. Summary of SWAMP Goals and Objectives C. Summary of Regional Water Board Goals and Objectives D. Summary of Monitoring Activities of the Nonpoint Source program a. California Nonpoint Source Management Program Tracking & Monitoring Objectives b. California Nonpoint Source Tracking and Monitoring Council Charter

E. Policy for Developing California's Clean Water Act Section 303(d) List

F. Supplemental Information for SWAMP Roundtable a. National Water Quality Monitoring Council framework b. Monitoring in the 21st Century to Address our Nation's Water-resource Questions (United States Geological Survey Congressional Briefing) c. Moving from Monitoring to Prediction: The Quality of the Nations Streams (United States Geological Survey Congressional Briefing) d. Sections of the California Water Code that Pertain to Ambient Monitoring e. Working Definitions for Key Words and Concepts

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Acknowledgements

Coordination and collaboration promote consistency and minimize duplication of effort. In that spirit, this document borrows liberally from the work of others. Most of the elements of SWAMP have been patterned after successful efforts that individual regions, other agencies, and other states are implementing. The result is a stronger, more cost effective program in terms of design and implementation. In particular, Terry Fleming at the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region 9, the members of the SWAMP Roundtable, and the National Water Quality Monitoring Council have influenced the development of this document. This document incorporates and builds on two previous reports on SWAMP that were submitted to the California Legislature in January and November 2000.

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Preface

Water is California's most precious resource. It provides an essential lifeline between agriculture, industry, the environment, and urban and rural interests throughout the state. With a growing population of more than 35 million and a limited supply of fresh water, the protection of water for beneficial uses is of paramount concern for all Californians. The State Water Resources Control Board (The State Water Board) and the Regional Water Quality Control Boards (Regional Water Boards) are responsible for protecting California's water resources (The State Water Board Strategic Plan, November 2001). The 2002 Strategic Plan contains the Water Board's approach to water quality protection. The Surface Water Ambient Monitoring Program (SWAMP) operates within the context of the following overarching elements of The Water Board's Strategic Plan.

Our vision is a sustainable California made possible by clean water and water availability for both human uses and environmental resource protection.

Our mission is to preserve, enhance, and restore the quality of California's water resources, and ensure their proper allocation and efficient use for the benefit of present and future generations.

Our operating principles clarify how we intend to interact with internal and external stakeholders, defining our roles and responsibilities and approaches to decision-making. These operating principles address several areas that we aim to strengthen to improve our effectiveness.

SWAMP's Comprehensive Monitoring and Assessment Strategy to Protect and Restore California's Water Quality (the Strategy) incorporates the following principles from The State Water Board Strategic Plan where appropriate:

? The State and Regional Water Boards (Water Boards) will seek consistent approaches to policy and Program implementation, recognizing the distinct obligations, issues, and authorities of each Water Board.

? The Water Boards will enforce water laws and regulations in a consistent, predictable, fair, and equitable manner.

? The Water Boards will collaborate with agencies and other key stakeholders to effectively address issues.

? The Water Boards will provide education and outreach opportunities so that Californians understand their responsibilities and abilities to protect water quality.

? The Water Boards will take a watershed approach to decisionmaking and program development.

? The Water Boards will make timely decisions based on: ? Input from fair and open public processes. ? Consideration of a decision's impact on stakeholders and the environment. ? Best available scientific and technical data. ? Best judgment. ? Clear findings and conclusions based on a developed record.

? The Water Boards will utilize technology to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of limited resources.

? The Water Boards will provide staff with clearly defined and prioritized expectations.

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preface continued ...

The Water Boards strategic plan contains six broad goals. ? The Water Boards' organizations are effective, innovative

and responsive. ? Surface waters are safe for drinking, fishing, swimming, and

support healthy ecosystems and other beneficial uses. ? Groundwater is safe for drinking and other beneficial uses. ? Water resources are fairly and equitably used and allocated

consistent with public trust. ? Individuals and other stakeholders support our efforts and

understand their role in contributing to water quality. ? Water quality is comprehensively measured to evaluate

protection and restoration efforts.

The first and second goals require monitoring and assessment. Monitoring and assessment efforts by the Groundwater Ambient Monitoring and Assessment Program support the third goal. Information from monitoring and assessment programs support goals four and five. The sixth goal focuses on developing and implementing the monitoring and assessment framework needed to evaluate the California Water Boards' progress in meeting these goals. The Strategic Plan states that we will achieve the sixth goal by pursuing the following measurable objectives: ? Increase the amount of useable, quantitative data and information

regarding water quality. ? Translate quantitative data into useful information regarding the

status of water quality. ? Coordinate the collection and reporting of water quality

information among programs, agencies and stakeholders.

To assess and report on our progress toward improving and restoring California's water resources, SWAMP must have the appropriate systems in place. At this time, we do not have enough monitoring resources to effectively evaluate the state's water quality. SWAMP will work with stakeholders to identify and implement additional monitoring resources. We will use measures to determine the effectiveness of our program activities and make modifications to improve that effectiveness. We will also work closely with stakeholders to develop and implement the most effective measurement and reporting tools so that we can communicate a consistent message regarding California's water quality. This effort includes our participation in the California Environmental Protection Agency's Environmental Protection Indicators of California (EPIC) project. Future updates of the Strategic Plan will incorporate several indicators, which will be an integral part of our measurement processes.

Further, the Strategic Plan proposes that developing the systems and processes to measure and demonstrate quantitative improvements in, and maintenance of, water quality will achieve these goals. A second emphasis is improving intra-agency, inter-agency, and stakeholder coordination of programs and data sharing. All of these concepts have been incorporated into SWAMP's Strategy described in this document.

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