Central Coast Ambient Monitoring Program

CCAMP

Summary of CCAMP Monitoring How we make CCAMP happen Making data available Measuring performance - our

“Watershed Report Card”

2Monthly monitoring at thirty-three sites since 2001

Long-term trend monitoring at Coastal Confluences sites

Monterey Bay

Santa Barbara Channel

What we do

3Monthly monitoring at thirty sites in each rotation area since 1998

Salinas

Santa Maria

Pajaro & North Coast

Santa Barbara Coast

Big Basin & Estero Coast

What we do

1998 / 2005 / 20111999 / 2006 / 20122000 / 2007 / 20132001 / 2008 / 20142002 / 2009 / 2015

Watershed Rotation Area Monitoring

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Conventional Water QualityMonthly Monitoring at All Sites

– Nutrients– Salts– Copper and Zinc– Pathogen indicators– Probe measurements– Flow

What we do

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Less frequently at a subset of CCAMP sites

• Benthic Invertebrate and algal assemblages• Habitat assessment (pHab)• Water and Sediment toxicity• Microcystin screening• Pesticide and metals chemistry (recent)• Riparian assessment (future)

What we do

Our data has resulted in: 11,700 Lines of Evidence for 303(d) Listing purposes Enforcement actions TMDL Success stories Agricultural, NPDES, and storm water program decision

support Trend and change detection associated with regulatory

actions

In this case, a treatment plant upgrade went online in May, 2007

Making our data accessible CCAMP has had data online since 2000 The CCAMP Data Navigator is our primary data

display tool. This tool updates on a scheduled basis from multiple

databases, including SWAMP-CEDEN

Examples from the CCAMP Data NavigatorNitrate-nitrite in Region 3

Time series show improvement on Chorro Creek after a treatment plant upgrade. Nitrate-nitrite is shown below.

Change analysis at Chorro Creek - Ortho-phosphate also improved after a treatment plant upgrade

A note about status and change…

From our website: Nitrate in the Monterey Area

From our website: Nitrate in the Monterey Area

From our website: Nitrate in the Monterey Area (note arrow icons denoting change).

We look at change in two ways:Kendall Trend Analysis

We look at change in two ways:Kendall Trend Analysis

Some change doesn’t fit a straight line:

Some change doesn’t fit a straight line:

Some change doesn’t fit a straight line:

Change Point Analysis defines probable change points in a time series of data

In this case, a treatment plant upgrade went online in May, 2007

Change Point Analysis allows us to grade (color) two sections of arrow icon

Healthy Watershed Report Cards:

A way to measure our performance

What do water quality managers and decision-makers need from their data?

Where is the problem? What is causing the problem? What land uses are associated with the problem? Where are our best places, that need to be

protected? Where are places that could be enhanced or

improved? Are things getting better or worse? Where??

We can answer these types of questions in an assessment report

But can we answer them with an online tool that updates as the data does??

Central Coast Healthy Watershed Website and Report Card Approach

The Healthy Watersheds website is designed with the general public and decision makers in mind, but still allows an exploratory approach so an inquiring user can drill in for more details….

The website scores Hydrologic Units, waterbodies and sites for health

The website scores Hydrologic Units, waterbodies and sites for health

The website scores Hydrologic Units, waterbodies and sites for health

The website scores Hydrologic Units, waterbodies and sites for health

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Our Vision for the Central Coast…

Healthy Watersheds

By 2025:Healthy Aquatic Habitat - 80% of aquatic habitat is healthy; remaining 20% exhibit positive trends in key parameters

Proper Land Management - 80% of land is managed to maintain proper watershed functions; remaining 20% exhibit positive trends in key parameters

Clean Groundwater- 80 percent of ground water is clean, and the remaining 20 percent will exhibit positive trends in key parameters

To assess our goals we needed to characterize both status (health) and change

Multi-metric approach Measured and modeled data Consistent, threshold-based scoring approach Status and change at different scales– Analyte and multi-metric scales– Site, waterbody, and watershed scales

General principles

Help the user answer Where, Why, What? Data from readily available online sources Data of documented quality Transparency of methods Drill down for detail Staff-maintained technical content via wikis

Adapted from Canadian Water Quality Index (CCME) Magnitude and exceedance components “Report card” paradigm

We are also designating Outstanding (A+) for “Blue Water Streams”that score Excellent across all measures.

Scoring Approach

A 100 to 90B 90 to 80C 80 to 65D 65 to 40F 45 to 1

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Excellent

Good

Fair

Poor

Very Poor

Indices of Health

Human Health IndexDrinking water• Nitrogen species• Salts• Metals • Organic ChemicalsWater Contact• Pathogens

Aquatic Life Index• Conventional Analytes• Toxicity• Bioassessment• Biostimulatory Risk• Metals• Organic Chemicals

Scoring whole watersheds

(currently in progress)

Flow and Loading• Assign scores to upstream reaches.

• Use modeled data to score unmonitored areas

Modeled data from California’s recent Healthy Watersheds Assessment

Healthy Watersheds Web Report Card, publically available later this winter

Next Steps

• Public release of Data Navigator • Methods manual to the SWAMP program

for peer review this fall. • Public release of Phase 1 of the Central

Coast Healthy Watersheds Report Card this winter

Phase 2 of the Healthy Watersheds Report Card

• Add linked groundwater data from GeoTracker to Human Health Goal

• Address Goal 2 related to land management• Pesticide applications• Impervious surfaces• Ag program metrics• Stormwater program metrics• Other measures of performance

About CCAMP Products

Dave Paradies has done all of the software development All funding for Dave’s time comes from the CCAMP

Endowment, held by a non-profit organization All code is open source, and is openly available for use by

others We are interested in finding support for this code into

the future Other entities, including EPA, State Board staff and the

Calif. Water Quality Monitoring Council, have expressed interest in our tools.

How did our Regional Water Board make a project of this nature happen?

Three important ways: CCAMP Endowment (in addition to SWAMP $) Staffing– Field staff – Data management and software support

Management support!

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