J. R. Schubel

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Monitoring of San Francisco Bay
Is The Whole Less Than The Sum Of The Parts?

• J. R. Schubel
• AQUARIUM OF THE PACIFIC LONG BEACH, CALIFORNIA

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San Francisco Bay Area
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Urbanization of San Francisco Bay Area 1900 -
1990
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San Francisco Bay Area 1850 - 1990
1850
1900
Urban Extent Tidal Wetlands Major Earthquakes
1940
1990
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Monitoring of San Francisco Bay

• Diagnostic?
• More than a chronicle of what has happened?

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Topics I will Cover

• What is monitoring? Why do we do it?
• What monitoring programs currently exist?
• What did we learn from the SFO runway
• reconfiguration assessment experience?
• What are the characteristics of a good program?
• How many of those characteristics do we find in
  the San Francisco Bay programs?
• Some closing observations.

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Topics I will not Cover

• Compliance monitoring programs in the Bay.
• Comprehensive, in-depth, descriptions of the
  Big 3 Bay Monitoring Programs
• RMP (Regional Monitoring Program)
• USGS-RMP (U.S. Geological Survey-Regional
  Monitoring Program Partnership)
• IEP (Interagency Ecological Program)

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What Is Monitoring?

• Monitoring means to watch, to observe, or check
  for a special purpose.
• Environmental monitoringis generally intended
  to produce information about three broad
  categories of problems (1) compliance, to
  ensure that activities are carried out in
  accordance with regulations and permit
  requirements (2) model verification, to check
  the validity of assumptions and predictions used
  as the basis for sampling design or permitting
  and for evaluation of management alternatives
  and (3) trend monitoring to quantify longer-term
  environmental changes anticipated (hypothesized)
  as possible consequences of human activities.
  NRC Managing Troubled Waters

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Why Do We Monitor?

• The ultimate goal of environmental monitoring of
  all kindscompliance, model validation and
  verification, and trendsis protection of the
  environment, living resources, and human
  health. NRC Managing Troubled Waters
• But despite these considerable efforts and
  expenditures, most environmental monitoring
  programs fail to provide the information needed
  to understand the condition of the marine
  environment or to assess the effects of human
  activity on it. NRC Managing Troubled
  Waters

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San Francisco Bay Area
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Current major Environmental Monitoring Programs

• Regional Monitoring Program (RMP) Bay
  Contaminants Monitoring
• U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Bay Water Quality
  Monitoring Program
• USGS-RMP Joint Monitoring
• Suspended Sediments
• Nutrients and Phytoplankton
• Interagency Ecological Program (IEP)
• Fish
• Invertebrates
• Water Quality

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Geographic Range

• RMP SF Bay
• USGS SF Bay to Rio Vista on Sacramento River
  historically (Now working in the Delta)
• IEP Bay, Delta, and Upstream

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Goals, Objectives Driving Questions

• RMP
• Water quality objectives compliance
• Contaminant spatial and temporal trends
• Contaminant sources and loading
• Contaminant effects
• Synthesis of the sources, distribution, fates,
  and effects of contaminants in the estuary
  ecosystem
• USGS
• Understanding how coastal ecosystems function and
  how those functions are altered by human
  disturbances

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Goals/Objectives/Driving Questions

• IEP MissionTo provide information on the
  factors that affect ecological resources in the
  Sacramento-San Joaquin Estuary that allows for
  more efficient (sic) management of the estuary.
• IEP Goals
• Understand factors in the Sacramento-San Joaquin
  estuary controlling the distribution and
  abundance of selected fish and wildlife
  resources.
• Comply with permit terms requiring ecological
  monitoring in the estuary.
• Identify impacts of human activities on the fish
  and wildlife resources.
• Ensure compliance with Delta water quality
  objectives.
• Make recommendations for water project operation.
    

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Parameters Measured

• RMP
• Contaminants in water, sediment, bivalves, fish,
  bird eggs, bird muscle
• Contaminant loads from rivers and atmosphere
• Toxicity in water and sediment
• Toxic effects on birds, fish, seals, benthos
• USGS
• Nutrients, light, plankton, DO, temperature, and
  salinity
• Sediment dynamics
• Hydrodynamics
• Pesticides in water
• IEP
• Fish populations
• Zooplankton
• Macro-invertebrates
• Nutrients, phytoplankton, DO, Salinity

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Measurement Frequency

• RMP Annual (long-term trends), episodic
  (toxicity, loading)
• USGS
• Sedimentsongoing
• Nutrients and basic water quality
  parametersweekly to monthly
• IEP
• Fish Populationsmonthly, annual monitoring
• Water Qualitydaily, monthly

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Clients for San Francisco Bays Monitoring
Programs

• RMP
• Steering Committee
• Regional Board
• Wastewater Stormwater Dischargers/Dredgers
• USGS
• Regulators
• Resource Managers
• IEP
• Regulators
• Resource Managers
• Water Contractors
• All
• Scientists
• Public  

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Monitoring ProductsTransforming Data Into
Information

• RMP
• Technical Reports
• Newsletters
• Pulse of the Estuary
• Journal Publications
• Website

• USGS
• Newsletters
• Pulse of the Estuary
• Journal Publications
• Website with data in real time
• IEP
• Technical Reports
• IEP Newsletter
• Journal Publications
• Website with data in real time

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State of the Bay Using Monitoring Data

• Professional Meetings
• San Francisco Estuary Project State of the
  Estuary Conference (Biennial)
• CALFED Science Conferences (Biennial)
• IEP Workshop (Annual)
• General Publications
• IEP Newsletter (Quarterly) and Annual Trends
  Issue (Annual)
• S.F. Estuary Project Newsletter (Bi-monthly)
• RMP Pulse of the Estuary (Annual)
• TBI/SFEI/CEMAR Indicators

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RMPs Niche

• Nearly Exclusive
• Systematic monitoring of spatial patterns and
  long-term trends of contaminants (Some overlap
  with NOAA Status and Trends and EMAP)
• Significant Overlap With Other Programs
• Contaminant effects (USGS, USFWL, CALFED)
• Contaminant loads (CEP)
• Fate modeling (CEP)

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This completes a brief overview of the major
environmental monitoring programs we have in
San Francisco Bay.
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Topics I will Cover

• What is monitoring? Why do we do it?
• What monitoring programs currently exist?
• What did we learn from the SFO expansion
  assessment experience?
• What are the characteristics of a good program?
• How many of those characteristics do we find in
  the San Francisco Bay programs?
• Some closing observations.

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Whats Missing?Lessons Learned From The SFO
Experience

• More detailed (temporal and spatial) sampling of
  water quality in the South Bay, which is the
  segment of the Bay that would be most likely to
  be impacted by SFO expansion.
• A long-term record of annual sampling of resident
  demersal fishes and analysis for persistent
  toxicants and selected histopathological
  disorders.

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Whats Missing?Lessons Learned From The SFO
Experience

• Bay-wide monitoring of nutrients on a monthly
  basis.
• Bay-wide monitoring of zooplankton on a monthly
  basis.
• Bay-wide monitoring of benthic or epibenthic
  invertebrates.
• Bay-wide monitoring of any ecosystem process,
  such as primary production, oxygen consumption,
  system metabolism, sulfate reduction or
  de-nitrification
• Bay-wide monitoring of microbial communities or
  functions, either in the water column or
  sediments.

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Whats Missing?Lessons Learned From The SFO
Experience

• Annual sampling of surficial sediments and
  analysis for chemical concentrations, toxicity in
  laboratory tests, and composition of the infaunal
  benthos.
• Annual sampling of the sea surface micro-layer
  several times during a three-month period each
  year for chemical concentrations, toxicity in
  laboratory tests, and populations of zooplankton.

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Whats Missing?Lessons Learned From The SFO
Experience

• Bay-wide monitoring on an annual basis
  quantitative surveys of resident and
  migratory birdsabundance, distribution, and
  health.
• Bay-wide monitoring on an annual basis of marine
  mammals with special emphasis on harbor seals
  (abundance, distribution, haul-out sites, marine
  foraging sites, etc).

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Whats Missing?Lessons Learned From The SFO
Experience

• Documentation of historical shoreline changes.
• A record of sediment bed dynamics how it
  responds to different physical forcing functions.
  
• A long-term record of fluxes across sub-basin
  boundaries of water, salt, sediment, chlorophyll,
  etc.
• Documentation of the effects of wetland
  restoration projects on the Bay.

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Whats Missing?Lessons Learned From The SFO
Experience

• More frequent (every 10 years) bathymetric
  surveys of the Bay.
• Documentation of historical changes in wetland
  conditions area, elevation, vegetation,
  salinity, etc.
• Inputs of water and sediment from the smaller
  tributaries.
• Historical records of water quality in tidal
  creeks and sloughs.

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Lessons Learned from SFO Long-Term Monitoring

• A Program that has a statistically valid and
  spatially comprehensive sampling strategy that
  allows scientists and managers to quantitatively
  track changes in the estuary over the long term
• A Program built, at least in part, upon the
  foundation of existing long-term data collection
  programs
• A Program that includes a suite of publicly
  understandable and meaningful indicators or
  performance measures that can be used to
  demonstrate the effects of specific human
  interventions (individual stressors as well as
  restoration activities) on species and ecological
  functions of interest.

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Lessons Learned from SFO Long-Term Monitoring

• A Program that includes indicators of the
  trophic levels (e.g., phytoplankton, zooplankton,
  benthos) that are important to species of concern
  (fish and wildlife)
• A Program that includes indicators of important
  physical characteristics such as sediment inputs
  and changes in bay margins (i.e., trends of
  erosion/accretion) in each region of the
  bay-delta system
• A Program that tracks changes in acres/hectares
  of specific habitat types in each region of the
  estuary

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Lessons Learned from SFO Long-Term Monitoring

• A Program that includes measures of critical
  contaminants (Se, Hg, PCBs, PAHs, pesticides) in
  suspended and bottom sediments and in species of
  concern such as fish, ducks and marine mammals
• A Program that includes a requirement of regular
  reporting of findings/trends to both the resource
  managers, to scientists, and to the public

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Lessons Learned from SFO Long-Term Monitoring

• A Program that transforms on a timely basis data
  into informational products tailored to the needs
  of different user groups.
• A Program that includes a requirement of regular
  reporting of findings/trends to both the resource
  managers, to scientists, and to the public

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Lessons Learned from SFO Long-Term Monitoring

• A Program that has a stable financial base.
• A Program that maintains consistent and
  appropriate methods of sampling that are well
  documented.
• A Program that ensures that species selected for
  sampling include a broad array of forms likely to
  be sensitive to perturbations, and once this
  array has been established, it does not change
  without serious evaluation.

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What Are The Characteristics Of A Good,
EffectiveEnvironmental Monitoring Program?
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Characteristics Of A Good, Effective Monitoring
Program

• Clear goals and objectives stated as questions or
  hypotheses questions are better.
• Clear, unambiguous identification of the clients
  primary and secondary.
• Sufficient and stable funding.

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Characteristics Of A Good, Effective Monitoring
Program

• A measurement program designed to meet the goals
  and objectives.
• Mechanisms to transform the data into a portfolio
  of informational products designed to answer the
  questions and appropriate for the clients needs.
• Scientific community and the public are partners.

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Characteristics Of A Good, Effective Monitoring
Program

• Periodic peer review.
• A chroniclea running accountof how the data and
  resulting information are used in making
  environmental decisions and how the data are used
  by the scientific community

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Characteristics Of A Good, Effective Monitoring
Program

• Answer questions/test hypotheses
• Provide on-line accounting
• Provide early warning
• Provide information to decision makers

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Characteristics Of A Good, Effective Monitoring
Program

• Clients--Know who your clients are and what they
  need.
• - Managers
• - The Public
• - Scientists
• - Other
• Deliver!

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Characteristics Of A Good, Effective Monitoring
Program

• Long-term
• To be long-term, it must
• - Be sustainable financially
• - Have a dedicated revenue stream
• - Take a minimalist approach to the core
• - Produce relevant results

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Characteristics Of A Good, Effective Monitoring
Program

• Emphasize synthesis/integration
• Transform data into information
• Be Timely
• Tell the evolving story in engaging ways

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A Few Of The Major Reasons Why Environmental
Monitoring Programs Fail

• They produce answers in search of questions,
  i.e. they produce data and not information!
• They fail to produce data or information on a
  timely basis.
• They have no constituency.
• There is no coupling to managers and their needs.
• There is no stable base of sustained financial
  support.

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Topics I will Cover

• What is monitoring? Why do we do it?
• What monitoring programs currently exist?
• What did we learn from the SFO expansion
  assessment experience?
• What are the characteristics of a good program?
• How many of those characteristics do we find in
  the San Francisco Bay programs?
• Some closing observations.

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Now, Its Your Turn
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A Monitoring Report Card For The RMP
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A Monitoring Report Card For The RMP
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A Monitoring Report Card For The RMP
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Monitoring of San Francisco Bay
Is The Whole Less Than The Sum Of The Parts?
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The Power of Simplicity

• Simplicity is needed at every stage of a regional
  monitoring program
• - Design
• - Execution
• - Reporting
• I wouldnt give a whit for simplicity this side
  of complexity, but I would give my right arm for
  simplicity the other side of complexity.
  Oliver Wendell Holmes
• Make it as simple as possible, but not
  simpler. Albert Einstein

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A Few Personal Observations

• San Francisco Bay is
• Beautiful.
• Defines the sense of place of the Bay Region.
• Important primarily for its recreational and
  aesthetic value.
• Perhaps the most highly altered large coastal
  system in the United States.
• An estuary for which we need a bold, compelling
  vision.
• Bridges, airport(s) expansions, Cargill Salt Pond
  reclamation

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A Few Personal Observations

• Lets take a lesson from Wayne Gretzky
• Scenarios
• Victor Hugo
• Will and Ariel Durant

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Thank You!