Monterey Bay Sanctuary Citizen Watershed Monitoring Network

The Monterey Bay Sanctuary Citizen Watershed Monitoring Network supports approximately 200 citizen water quality monitors throughout the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. It arose from the need for more information on the health of the sanctuary and its eleven major watersheds and to communicate that information effectively to agencies and the public. Key partners in the network include the sanctuary, the Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board (CCRWQCB), the Coastal Watershed Council (CWC), the California Coastal Commission, and The Ocean Conservancy. These groups recognize that individual monitoring groups are more effective when they are integrated, use standardized monitoring protocols and equipment, and have a common database for their data.

The network has provided support and resources to citizen monitoring programs for the past four years. The network coordinator provides annual training events, loans water quality monitoring equipment, maintains a listserv, and has a state-approved quality assurance project plan. A network brochure and web site (www.montereybay.noaa.gov/monitoringnetwork/welcome.html) provide information for citizens to get involved and make a difference in their watersheds. Among other things, the web site contains a directory of active monitoring programs, downloadable reports, and a link to the volunteer Central Coast Ambient Monitoring Program (CCAMP) database developed by the CCRWQCB.

With assistance from the CCRWQCB and the State Water Resource Control Board’s Clean Water Team, the network coordinator has been working to establish a certification process to “qualify” the data collected by citizen groups, thereby making them more useful to resource managers. Volunteer data uploaded into the CCAMP database will contain qualifiers based on six programmatic elements including: planning and design, training, protocols, quality assurance planning, quality assurance procedures, and record keeping. To date, the Upper Salinas Las Tablas Resource Conservation District (with volunteers from the Upper Salinas Watershed Coalition), San Pedro Creek Watershed Coalition, and the Pacific Grove and Monterey Urban Watch programs are contributing their monitoring results to CCAMP. Soon, the CWC will be uploading their Clean Streams data into CCAMP. Eventually, all of this valuable information will be online on the network web site.

Snapshot Day 2000 revealed five locations of concern. In 2001 four of the five remained on the list, and twelve new sites were added.

The network coordinator is also responsible for organizing two annual water quality monitoring events each year. First Flush, in which volunteers collect urban storm water runoff from the first major rain of the season, takes place each fall. Samples are collected from storm drain outfalls around Monterey Bay. The samples are analyzed for bacteria, nutrients, oil and grease, total dissolved solids, total suspended solids, zinc, copper, and lead. Interesting trends have been identified with just two years of data. Overall, bacteria, copper, and orthophosphate levels exceeded CCAMP action levels (benchmarks established by the CCRWQCB) at the majority of monitoring sites both years. These contaminants may contribute to fish and wildlife diseases, shellfish contamination, and human health threats.

On November 7 the first rains of 2002 brought the first flush in a storm that drenched the entire West Coast. More than an inch of rain pelted the central coast with walls of water and winds that brought down trees. Capitola and Santa Cruz volunteers mobilized at 2:30 a.m., while Monterey and Pacific Grove volunteers eagerly waited until 5:30 p.m. for the storm to arrive. Added to the list of laboratory analysis this year was toxicity. Samples were collected at fifteen of the sites for toxicity analysis at the Department of Fish and Game’s Marine Pollution Laboratory.

Snapshot Day, in which volunteers collect and analyze water samples from local creeks and rivers, takes place each spring. More than 150 volunteers monitor the health of streams from Pacifica to Morro Bay. This event has been extremely popular and continues to provide a “snapshot” of coastal streams as well as an opportunity for all the groups to work together on a single day. In order to evaluate the results from snapshot days and compare them from year to year, six parameters were chosen to determine “locations of concern.” These include dissolved oxygen, water temperature, pH, nitrate, orthophosphate, and E. coli/fecal coliform. If the CCAMP action level was exceeded for three or more of the parameters listed, it was deemed a location of concern. For Snapshot Day 2000, there were five locations of concern. In 2001 four of the five sites remained a location of concern, and twelve additional sites were added to the list (see Figure 1, p. 13). For more Snapshot Day information, reports can be downloaded from the network web site. Snapshot Day will expand to become a coast-wide monitoring event in the spring of 2003, thanks to the painstaking efforts of the California Coastal Commission and funding from the State Water Resources Control Board and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The Monterey Bay Sanctuary Foundation will administer the funding.

Citizen water quality monitoring data are becoming a valuable resource for management decisions. Local and state agencies are increasingly searching for answers through data collected by citizen groups. Local jurisdictions use the data to help identify problem areas and improve management decisions. As an example, within the sanctuary, several cities have been supporting a dry weather urban watch program for the past five years. Samples of urban runoff are collected at fifteen different locations bi-weekly, from June through October. The samples are processed using an EPA Pollution Detection kit. The data from this program are used to justify programs such as public education and targeted business outreach. Citizens will continue to provide valuable data as long as a support structure is in place for them and they know the information they are collecting is useful.

Bridget Hoover
Monterey Bay Sanctuary Citizen Watershed Monitoring Network Coordinator

Water Quality Monitoring in Elkhorn Slough

Volunteer Sue Shaw collecting water quality data in Elkhorn Slough. photo Courtesy of John Haskins The Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve (ESNERR) has two programs in place to monitor water quality. The volunteer monitoring program began in 1988 and is a cooperative effort among ESNERR, the Elkhorn Slough Foundation, and the Monterey County Water Resources Agency. Twenty-four stations are sampled monthly for temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, pH, turbidity, nitrate, ammonium, and dissolved inorganic phosphate. The data are collected in the field by coordinating volunteer Sue Shaw and others. A second (national) program began in 1995 and also monitors for temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, pH, and turbidity (and since March 2002 monitors nitrate, nitrite, phosphate, ammonia, and chlorophyll). These data are collected continuously at the cooperating twenty-five NERR sites nationwide, allowing for rigorous analyses of time series data across a sample of the nation’s estuaries. Data are available from all NERR sites at http://cdmo.baruch.sc.edu/. Originally starting with two sites, this program has grown to four sites at Elkhorn Slough, all of which are sampled for water quality parameters every half hour and for nutrients once a month. Figure 1. Percent saturation of dissolved oxygen in Azevedo Pond in June 2002. Note the distinctive pattern of high saturation in the middle of the day, when photosynthesis is most active, and lowest saturation – anoxic at times – during the middle of the night when respiration is high. Combining both these programs enables us to conduct spatial and temporal analyses in the Slough. As expected, temporal trends indicate that tides and sunlight have a strong influence on the water quality parameters investigated in the slough. For instance, Azevedo Pond, which is in the upper slough off the main channel and receives a muted tidal signal, has a large fluctuation in dissolved oxygen (DO) saturation (Figure 1). This pattern of high saturation in the midday hours and low saturation in the early morning hours is most likely because of shallow waters and muted tidal signals increasing residence time of pond waters, allowing algae to supersaturate the water with oxygen during the day and almost completely remove it during the dark hours through respiration. Figure 2. Nitrate in milligrams per liter at the Salinas River Bridge, revealing frequent high levels Spatial analyses have revealed significant differences among sites. For instance, monthly nutrient sampling has revealed exceptionally high nitrate concentrations at stations in waters that feed the lower slough area (Figure 2), reaching above 100 milligrams per liter on numerous occasions at multiple sites. These parameters also indicate possible seasonal trends. With long-term data sets such as these we are able to identify human and naturally induced impacts. They also enable us to track changes as a result of mitigations and new management strategies. John Haskins Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve