RMP NewsVolume 5, Issue 2

Regional Monitoring News, Winter 2000

Contents

Monitoring Atmospheric Pollutant Deposition in the Bay

Water Pollution in California--Where Does it Come From?

What are Benthic Macrofauna and Why Should We Study Them?

Creating a Sediment Atlas for the Bay

Around Town

SFEI Staff Profile

Calendar

Announcements

Monitoring Atmospheric Pollutant Deposition in the Bay

Pam Tsai, SFEI; Eric Papp, City of San Jose Environmental Services Department; Rainer Hoenicke, SFEI

Background

It has been recognized for some time that atmospheric deposition of pollutants may affect the water quality of the Great Lakes and other surface waters. The Integrated Atmospheric Deposition Network (IADN) was established by the United States and Canada for conducting air and precipitation monitoring in the Great Lakes Basin. IADN began operation in 1990. Currently, IADN consists of five Master Stations and 14 Satellite Stations designed to measure deposition via rain or snowfall and the air concentrations of gaseous and particulate organics and trace elements. In addition to the monitoring programs deployed under the IADN, air deposition studies have been conducted across the U.S. under the umbrella of the National Atmospheric Deposition Program/National Trends Network to assess the spatial patterns and temporal trends of air deposition of anions, cations, and mercury. Other studies focusing on atmospheric deposition include:

• Florida Atmospheric Mercury Study
• Vermont Monitoring Cooperative
• Atmospheric Exchange Over Lakes and Oceans
• Chesapeake Bay Atmospheric Deposition Study
• Galveston Bay National Estuary Program
• Tampa Bay National Estuary Program
• New Jersey Atmospheric Deposition Network
• Studies proposed or initiated in Charleston Harbor and the Gulf of Maine

Local Monitoring Efforts

Existing information indicates that air deposition may be a significant pathway for certain pollutants to the Estuary. Several attempts, based on retroactive calculation, have been made to assess the contribution of air deposition to the San Francisco Bay. Gross calculations based on ambient air monitoring results of the California Air Resources Board (CARB), the Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAQMD), and a preliminary study conducted by the City of San Jose in 1996 indicate that contribution of atmospheric deposition to the total pollutant loading ranges from less than 1% up to 20% for certain pollutants. No definitive conclusions can be drawn from these retroactive calculations and preliminary results. So far, no systematic studies have been conducted to evaluate the magnitude of air deposition and its relative significance of contribution to the total pollutant loading to the Bay.

The San Francisco Bay Atmospheric Deposition Pilot Study (Pilot Study) is a collaborative effort among many environmental protection and resource agencies, as well as industrial partners from the San Francisco Bay Area. Currently, it is locally funded under the umbrella of the Regional Monitoring Program for Trace Substances (RMP) by 74 RMP participants. The 74 RMP participants include publicly-owned treatment works, sediment dredgers, stormwater management agencies, and cooling water dischargers.

Purposes of the Pilot Study

The primary purpose of the Pilot Study is to use the best available methods in obtaining seasonal and annual estimates of the deposition of selected pollutants from the air directly to the surface of the Bay. Results of this Pilot Study will provide essential preliminary scientific information that can be used by federal, state, and local agencies, as well as industrial partners in determining if air deposition is a pollutant pathway that needs to be explored further, and in developing pollution prevention and abatement strategies for protecting the natural resources in the Bay.

Selection of Chemicals

In the final selection of chemicals to monitor, researchers considered:

1. whether the chemical presents concerns for impairing the Bay surface water, and
2. whether existing regulatory and management controls are insufficient to reduce emissions or releases of the chemical.

Estimates of the magnitude of the air deposition pathway may be used to explore additional control options. Chemicals monitored in the Pilot Study include some selected trace elements (cadmium, chromium, copper, mercury, and nickel) and trace organics (PAHs, PCBs, and dioxins). Because of limited funding, the Pilot Study is initially focusing on the trace element component and will expand to include trace organics monitoring as additional funding becomes available.

Methodology

General Atmospheric Deposition Study Methodology

Deposition of air pollutants to the Bay surface water can occur by several processes, including rain scavenging of gases and particles, dry deposition of dust and particles, deposition through cloud and fogwater, air-water exchange, and air-terrestrial exchange processes. Wet deposition samples are collected during rain events and dry deposition samples are collected on days with no rain. Wet deposition studies estimate pollutant concentrations in rain collected by precipitation collectors. Both direct and indirect methods have been used to study dry deposition. The direct method measures the quantity of particulates depositing on a surrogate deposition plate or surface during non-rainy days. The indirect method performs inferential calculations based on pollutant concentrations in the air and pertinent meteorological information.

San Francisco Bay Pilot Study Methodology

The initial phase of the Pilot Study focuses on the collection and analysis of trace elements (i.e., cadmium, chromium, copper, mercury, and nickel). A dual-orifice Aerochem Metrics Precipitation Collector, modified by the Illinois State Water Survey, is used to collect precipitation samples of mercury and trace metals. A separate gold trap/cartridge device supplied by a commercial laboratory is used to collect mercury vapors from the air. A sampling device with greased Mylar strips mounted on a knife-edge plate is deployed to collect particulates depositing directly on a surrogate surface. A prototype of the surrogate surface dry deposition collecting device has been generously provided by Dr. Thomas Holsen at Clarkson University, Potsdam, New York and further modified by the City of San Jose. When adequate funding becomes available, the Pilot Study will expand to include installation of additional samplers for trace organics. The flow chart below shows a summary of the methodology and samplers being used in the Pilot Study.

Project Organization and Responsibilities

Agencies and organizations who have participated in the planning and who are involved in the implementation of the Pilot Study include: BAAQMD, Bay Area Dischargers Association, Bay Area Stormwater Management Agencies Association, CARB, the City of San Jose, the San Francisco Regional Water Quality Control Board, the San Francisco Estuary Institute (SFEI), Stanford University, the University of California at Berkeley and Davis, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. AScience Review Group (SRG) has been established to provide essential technical expertise, guidance, and in-kind services. SRG members include representatives from the aforementioned agencies and organizations, as well as Envair, an environmental consulting firm.

SFEI, the organization administering the RMP, manages and coordinates the Pilot Study. The RMP Project Manager, Rainer Hoenicke, is responsible for project budget management and serves as the management liaison. The Principal Investigator, Pam Tsai, is responsible for overall project design, planning, coordination, and management of project activities. The City of San Jose, San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, and Central Contra Costa Sanitary District are providing in-kind services with site maintenance and sample collection at monitoring sites located in the South Bay, San Francisco, and Martinez, respectively. The City of San Jose's Environmental Services Department is performing preparation of greased Mylar films and analysis of cadmium, chromium, copper, and nickel collected on the Mylar films. A commercial laboratory is performing analysis of total mercury and other selected trace elements in precipitation samples. A second commercial laboratory performs analysis of mercury in the air.

Project Schedule

Preliminary sampling, analysis, and data evaluation were performed between February and August 1999. Sample collections resumed in September 1999 on a biweekly basis (every 14 days) and will continue for a total of 12 months. Results from the Pilot Study will be evaluated on a quarterly basis, and the study protocol will be revised according to the decision criteria established by the RMP Technical Review Committee and the Steering Committee.

For more information about the Air Deposition Pilot Study, please contact Dr. Pam Tsai at (510) 231-5619 or pam@sfei.org.

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Water Pollution in California Where Does it Come From?

Ted Daum, SFEI

Introduction

Numerous efforts aimed at reducing or eliminating sources of water pollution in California have been undertaken, beginning in the 1950s when primary treatment of effluent was first implemented at publicly-owned sewage treatment plants. Promulgation of the Porter-Cologne Water Quality Act of 1969 and the Clean Water Act of 1972 (and subsequent additions) led to improvement in many areas of water quality. For instance, pollutants discharged by municipal and industrial treatment plants have been greatly reduced as a result of numerous pollution prevention, reduction, and treatment efforts spawned by this legislation. These two Acts form the regulatory foundation for much of the work being undertaken today.

But despite many improvements, urban and agricultural runoff, treated wastewater, dredging activities, atmospheric deposition, and point sources all continue to introduce contaminants to the coastal waters of California. These sources are exacerbated due to increasing urbanization and other pressures of population growth. The RMP and other studies have shown that despite reductions in so-called "end-of-pipe" point source pollution, concentration levels of many contaminants in sediments and water are not showing a corresponding decrease over time. This strongly suggests that the more diffuse (i.e., non-point) sources are increasing in importance, but their total and relative contributions on a statewide level are not well known. The California State Legislature, through Assembly Bill 1429 (AB 1429) and Water Code section 13181, has mandated that action be taken in order to address gaps in our knowledge regarding pollutant loading to California's coastal waters. The Coastal Watershed Loading Project provides the framework for this effort.

The Program

The above-mentioned legislation requires the State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) to deliver specific products to the California Legislature. The San Francisco Estuary Institute (SFEI), the Southern California Coastal Water Research Project (SCCWRP), and the California State UniversityMoss Landing Marine Laboratories (MLML) have a mandate defined within the legislation to collaborate and complete the following tasks for the SWRCB:

1. To the extent possible, estimate the total discharge of pollutants from state coastal watersheds to bays, estuaries, and coastal waters from all sources.
2. Identify the relative contribution of stormwater to the total discharge of contaminants to coastal waters.
3. Describe methodology for improved monitoring of the mass discharge of contaminants from stormwater into coastal waters, including the appropriate frequency of monitoring for each pollutant.
4. Estimate the costs of implementing such a monitoring program and a proposed schedule of implementation.

The coastal hydrologic regions shown on the map on page 3 define the geographic scope of this project. The areas of responsibility are as follows: North and Central CoastsMLML; San Francisco BaySFEI; South CoastSCCWRP. The San Francisco Bay and South Coast areas will have the majority of data for loading estimates. Collaboration across these hydrologic regions will occur between SFEI, MLML, and SCCWRP.

Planning and Coordination

For the first time in such an effort, an interdisciplinary team has been assembled which includes experts from the fields of environmental engineering and hydrogeomorphology (e.g., sediment transport). This expertise was included on the team in recognition of the fact that both are fundamental to a more complete understanding of contaminant loading in stormwater. Steering committee meetings will be held on a regular basis to ensure that public interest groups, the local Regional Water Quality Control Boards, and National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit holders will be kept in the loop throughout this process.

Model Development and Contaminant Loading Estimation (Tasks 1 and 2)

To address Tasks 1 and 2, both point and non-point source loading estimates will be made on a statewide basis. A well-known watershed modeling approach will be utilized to estimate non-point source contaminant loads. The concept behind this model is straightforward. Contaminant loads are calculated as the product of runoff volume and a flow weighted contaminant concentration. Runoff coefficient, rainfall, and catchment (i.e., watershed) area determine the runoff volume. Runoff coefficients and contaminant concentrations are a function of the land use type. This model can be written as follows:

(1) Q = r * i * A, where

Q is Volume
r is Runoff coefficient
i is Rainfall
A is Catchment area

(2) W = Q * C, where

W is Contaminant Load
C is Contaminant Concentration

The following data sources for the model will be used on a statewide basis:

Rainfall—California average monthly or annual precipitation, 1961-1990. Elevation is taken into account in this rainfall model. Parameter-elevation Regressions on Independent Slopes Model (PRISM) derived raster data is the underlying data set from which the data layer was created. PRISM is an analytical model that uses point data and a digital elevation model (DEM) to generate estimates of annual, monthly and event-based climatic parameters.

Catchment area—The CALWATER version 2.0 data will be used for delineation of hydrological units and watersheds for the purposes of load estimations. CALWATER has become the standard watershed definition for a number of local, state, and federal agencies, and is used in the CALFED project. This is a SWRCB watershed delineation with further subdivisions of smaller watershed units, and is the closest we have to a standardized watershed delineation. The watershed boundaries for the San Francisco Bay hyrdrologic region are shown on the map on page 11.

California statewide hydrography data, commonly referred to as the "river reach" data set, consists of flowing waters (rivers and streams), standing waters (lakes and ponds), and wetlands(natural and manmade). This California Department of Fish and Game (CDFG) data set was originally published by the United States Geological Survey (USGS), and was updated under the auspices of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

The following land use and stormwater concentration data will be used specifically for the Bay Area:

Land use data—The Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG) land use data set (circa 1995) will be used. This is the latest and most accurate land use data available for the Bay Area.

Stormwater concentration dataThe Bay Area Stormwater Management Agencies Association (BASMAA) data set is a compilation of the stormwater data generated by a number of Bay Area agencies from 1988 to 1995, for purposes including the characterization of contaminant loading by land use type.

Additionally, the PRISM rainfall data set may be superceded by more accurate local rainfall data where available.

Empirical Data

Empirical data will be used wherever available for calibration of the model and generation of estimates, particularly for large watersheds or rivers. For example, empirical data from stormwater monitoring efforts in Santa Clara and Alameda counties will be used for comparison with model results, and data from the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers will be used for estimating contaminant loading from the Central Valley.

Point Source and Other Data

Data from NPDES permit-required monitoring will be used to calculate point source estimates for effluents that empty to receiving waters which are coastal or in the tidal prism. Contaminant loading estimates from at least the dozen largest dischargers will be made, representing over 80 percent of the point source flows to San Francisco Bay by volume. Bay Area dry and wet atmospheric deposition data will also be available for copper, nickel, cadmium, chromium, and mercury.

Data Gaps and Mass Load Estimation Improvements (Tasks 3 and 4)

The advantages of this modeling approach in estimating dispersed contaminant loading sources, such as urban, agricultural, and open space runoff, are that it is simple to implement and inexpensive. However, there are disadvantages that cannot be overlooked. There is uncertainty associated with the land use, runoff coefficient, and stormwater concentration variables, and this results in highly variable estimates of pollutant loadings for a watershed or hydrologic region. The uncertainty of the estimates will be different from region to region depending on the availability of data. For instance, land use contaminant concentration data are sparser in the North and Central Coast regions, and this will necessitate the use of data from other areas, thus increasing the uncertainty of estimates in these areas. The model does not reflect the impacts of soil moisture conditions, reservoir operations, or sediment transport, and thus adds further variability.

Despite these caveats, the estimates resulting from the first two tasks in this project will be very useful in producing rough, first-order estimates of contaminant loads on a regional level. The first two tasks in this project will help highlight data gaps preventing more accurate contaminant loading estimations. Issues concerning sediment transport, stormwater monitoring protocols, and other factors which increase variability will also be addressed through model comparison with available empirical data from localized watershed studies, technical advisor input, and other efforts to be undertaken in Task 3. We will make recommendations for improvement of current mass emission estimates which may include sampling protocols, alternative models for estimating contaminant loading, and additional data acquisition. A final report will be presented to the State Water Resources Control Board by October 1, 2000.

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What are Benthic Macrofauna and Why Should We Study Them?

Sarah Lowe, SFEI

Why Monitor Benthic Macrofauna?

Benthic macrofauna (bottom dwelling organisms which are larger than 0.5mm) are a common component of all major monitoring programs in the United States because they are a key part of the ecosystem, linking sediments to the aquatic foodweb, providing food for bottom feeding fish and birds, and facilitating other important sediment functions through their burrowing and feeding activities. Most benthic organisms are not very mobile, and therefore must contend with estuarine variability, such as changes in salinity, turbidity, dissolved oxygen, contamination, and the immigration of new species. Benthic macrofauna concentrate and pass potentially harmful pollutants up the foodweb. Because of these factors, benthic macrofauna are considered to be useful indicators of local sediment and ecological conditions.

Benthic macrofauna have been studied in San Francisco Bay since 1912 when the USS Albatross collected samples in the Central Bay. Increased urbanization in the mid-1900s brought several studies focused on the effects of water quality on benthos, and several long term monitoring programs have continued to collect benthic samples since the 1980s.

Benthos and the RMP

The RMP has conducted the Benthic Pilot Study since 1994 to describe the distribution and composition of benthic communities (assemblages) in the San Francisco Bay and Delta in order to provide a foundation for the development of benthic indicators of impacted conditions. This is a collaborative study that includes data collected since 1994 from the RMP, the Department of Water Resources (DWR), the Bay Area Dischargers Association's Local Effects Monitoring Program (BADA LEMP), and the Bay Protection and Toxic Clean-up Program (BPTCP).

Benthic assessments commonly use a "control-impact" approach where a benthic assemblage is evaluated by comparing biological conditions of test sites to those of one or more comparable reference sites. Reference sites are ecologically similar to the test sites in every aspect, except they are relatively unimpacted by human influences.

Because the San Francisco Estuary and its surroundings are unique and have been urbanized for so long, there are no undisturbed reference sites within the Estuary from which to compare biological conditions. In order to find reference sites within the Estuary that might be considered relatively unimpacted, the study first went to the literature to find out what was known about the contamination tolerance of individual organisms found in the Estuary. With this information, the study used benthic data from the RMP and DWR to identify "ambient reference" conditions within the Estuary for the major benthic assemblages found in the Estuary. The BADA LEMP and BPTCP data were used as test samples.

Step 1: Identifying Major Benthic Assemblages

By analyzing 424 samples from 44 sites between 1992 and 1996, the study identified three major benthic assemblages, and several sub-assemblages using a multivariate statistical analysis of species composition and abundance. Salinity gradients and sediment type within the Estuary largely defined the distribution of these assemblages (see map). The assemblages overlap because seasonal changes in freshwater flow and sediment transport into the Estuary change the salinity and sediment gradients, and the benthos respond accordingly.

Step 2: Identifying Benthic Indicators

An extensive literature search was conducted to determine the sensitivity to contamination of over 500 taxa identified in this study. About one third of the identified taxa were found to be either tolerant or intolerant to contamination. These taxa were combined into two composite tolerant and intolerant benthic indicators of contaminant effects, which were used to screen for reference samples. Several commonly used benthic indicators of contaminant effects, such as the presence of amphipods (tiny shrimp-like organisms), and the relative abundances of oligochaetes (worms) and chironomids (aquatic insect larvae found in freshwater), were also identified as a result of the literature search.

Step 3: Identifying "Ambient Reference" Conditions

Screening criteria were developed to identify a set of samples considered to be representative of "ambient reference" (relatively unimpacted) conditions for each assemblage. These screening criteria were:

• Presence of amphipods.
• Oligochaetes contributed less than 50% of total abundance.
• Less than 25% of all taxa are contamination tolerant.
• More than 10% of all taxa are contamination intolerant.
• Chironomid taxa comprise less than 25% of all taxa (in the Fresh-Brackish assemblage only).

Samples that met three of the four criteria were considered to be characteristic of "ambient reference" conditions. The screening results identified 36 samples for the Central Bay Marine muddy assemblage, 80samples for the main Estuarine assemblage, and 217 samples for the Fresh-Brackish assemblage as characteristic of "ambient reference" conditions.

Step 4: Determining Impacted Areas

The minimum and maximum values for a set of selected biological attributes were calculated from the "ambient reference" samples. These ranges were considered to be typical of what might be expected under relatively unimpacted ambient conditions for each assemblage in the San Francisco Estuary. Test samples that contained several attributes outside of the "ambient reference" ranges could be considered to be ecologically impacted. The table on page 7 shows an example of three samples that were collected along a gradient of contamination near Islias Creek in San Francisco (IC being the most, and IC-End being the least contaminated site). At IC, four out of eight biological attributes were below the reference range indicating that the benthic assemblage was significantly impacted. At IC-End, only two biological attributes were below the reference range indicating minimal benthic impact.

Conclusions

The Benthic Pilot Study has described the distribution and composition of the major benthic assemblages in the San Francisco Bay and Delta. Within these assemblages, "ambient reference" conditions have been determined which provide a foundation for using benthic indicators to identify contaminant-impacted areas in the Estuary.

While assessing ecological condition based solely on benthic samples does not provide a complete evaluation of Estuary sites, it does add an essential, in-situ, biological component to environmental assessments. When used in conjunction with sediment chemistry and toxicological assessments, a comprehensive assessment of ecological condition within the Estuary can be determined.

For more information about the Benthic Pilot Study, contact Sarah Lowe at (510) 231-5760 or sarah@sfei.org. To request a copy of Results of the Benthic Pilot Study, 1994-1997, a two part report summarizing the pilot study, call Gabriele Marek at (510) 231-5713 or gabriele@sfei.org.

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Creating a Sediment Atlas for the Bay

Ted Daum, SFEI

The monitoring of contaminants in the sediments of San Francisco Bay is important for a number of reasons. Sediments are a fundamental ecosystem component of the Bay, and they play a key role in the adsorption and transport of contaminants. Through processes of deposition, physical and/or chemical changes during burial, erosion, and transport, sediments serve as sources and sinks for contaminants. Trace elements and many organic contaminants are usually found in concentrations orders of magnitude higher in the upper few centimeters of sediments than in the water column.

Information about sediments in San Francisco Bay is needed for purposes such as:

• Toxic hot-spot identification.
• Dredged sediment management.
• Military base clean up and restoration.
• Biological resource management.
• Evaluation of stormwater program best management practices.

To fulfill the need for a summary of information about sediments in San Francisco Bay, the San Francisco Estuary Institute created the Atlas of Sediment Contamination, Toxicity, and Benthic Assemblages in San Francisco Bay (Atlas). Information contained in the Atlas was derived from four major programs:

• Regional Monitoring Program for Trace Substances (RMP).
• Bay Protection and Toxic Cleanup Program (BPTCP).
• Bay Area Dischargers Association's Local Effects Monitoring Program (BADA LEMP).
• California Department of Water Resources, Compliance Monitoring Program, Benthic Monitoring Data.

In order to insure comparability of data, these programs utilized stringent quality assurance/quality control (QA/QC) procedures, including standard reference materials, percent recovery of each analyte, relative percent difference by analyte for duplicate samples, and laboratory intercalibration exercises. There was a considerable amount of sediment data that were not included in the Atlas because they did not meet QA/QC standards.

The Atlas includes conceptual models of sediment transport and fate, and animal exposure and effects. These models aid in the understanding of sediment processes and provide a context for interpreting sediment data.

Sediment contaminant concentrations have been monitored at many sites in the Bay since 1991. The parameters measured include those trace elements and organic compounds which are designated as "contaminants of concern" in the San Francisco Bay Basin Plan, or which have been shown to exceed sediment quality levels in areas of the Bay. The trace element contaminants measured include arsenic, cadmium, chromium, copper, lead, mercury, nickel, selenium, silver, and zinc. Organic contaminants measured include PAHs (low and high molecular weight, and total), PCBs, dieldrin, total chlordanes, total DDTs, and total HCHs. Also measured were sediment quality parameters unaffected by human activities that can influence contaminant levels in sediments. These were aluminum, iron, magnesium, total organic carbon, and percent fines (< 63 µm) and percent sand (63µm­2mm), which are surrogates for grain size. Data for arsenic, mercury, and selenium were not included from the 1991­1992 samples due to QA/QC problems. The Atlas contains both maps, showing the distribution of contamination in the Bay, and charts, showing the trends in contaminant concentrations at each RMP site between 1991 and 1997.

Contaminant Distributions

The Atlas contains maps which show the concentrations and distributions of ten trace elements and eight trace organic contaminant groups in the Bay for 1997 (sample map for mercury is shown). This year was chosen because it included the most recent data available for all the programs considered, and because it represented the greatest extent of coverage of Bay sediments sampled.

Contaminant Trends

The sediment contaminant data used for the trends calculations in the Atlas were produced from two programs, the RMP and the BPTCP. The BPTCP was established by the California State Legislature in 1989 and includes the goals of identifying toxic hot spots and planning for their remediation or cleanup. Several of the ambient BPTCP sampling sites were precursors for what became RMP sampling stations, which gave a timeline for contaminant measurement going back to 1991 at these stations. Trends for trace elements and trace organic contaminants, sediment grain size, and total organic carbon are presented in the Atlas for each sampling site (sample charts for the Sacramento River are shown). In order to maximize the statistical power of the time trends analyses, only those sites for which at least five years of data were available were used (n = 10 or greater), and most sites had eight years of data available (n = 12 or greater).

The Future

For the first time, the Atlas summarizes substantial amounts of information on sediment contamination, toxicity, and benthic assemblages from major programs in the San Francisco Bay-Delta. Integrating data from these major programs into the Atlas creates large intercomparable data sets, and should serve to further our understanding of sediments in the Bay. Plans are being made to continually add to and develop the Atlas, further enhancing its usefulness as an analytical and prognostic tool.

For more information about the Atlas, please contact Ted Daum at (510) 231-9526 or ted@sfei.org. To receive a copy of the Atlas, please contact Gabriele Marek at (510) 231-5713 or visit our website at http://www.sfei.org.

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Meet Sarah Lowe—Environmental Analyst

Sarah joined SFEI in 1995, and has been responsible for the RMP's data management, data compilation, and quality assurance work. She is currently working closely on the Benthic Pilot Study, and recently received her Master's degree in Environmental Management at the University of San Francisco.

Although she was born in Pennsylvania, Sarah spent her childhood in many different countries, including Thailand, the Philippines, Brazil, and India (where she lived in the foothills of the Himalayas). She returned to Berkeley to finish up her high school education, ultimately procuring her undergraduate degree from the University of California at Santa Cruz.

She graduated from UCSC in 1985, then moved to Boston where she worked as a Laboratory Technician at the Boston University School of Medicine. After a year, however, she grew tired of spending all her time indoors and left her lab job to work as a bicycle messenger and a guide at the Boston Aquarium.

When she moved back to the Bay Area, Sarah worked in landscaping, catering, and accounting, fixed car engines, and even helped build bookbinding machinery before she found her way to SFEI. In her spare time, she still enjoys gardening, as well as hiking, woodworking, and spending as much time as possible with her 10 year-old daughter, Alexa.

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Around Town

2000 IEP Workshop

The Interagency Ecological Program will be holding its annual workshop March 1-3, 2000 at the Asilomar Conference Center in Pacific Grove, California. The IEP workshop will provide information on a number of projects via talks, posters, and panel discussions. Registration forms and information about the workshop agenda can be found at http://www.iep.ca.gov. For additional information about the workshop, please contact Zach Hymanson at zachary@water.ca.gov.

Bay Delta Modeling Forum

The annual workshop of the Bay Delta Modeling Forum will be held February 29-March 1, 2000 at the Asilomar Conference Center in Pacific Grove, California. For additional information, please contact John Williams at jgwill@dcn.davis.ca.us.

SETAC World Congress

The purpose of the 3rd Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry World Congress is to address key global environmental issues in the 21st century, focussing on problems, causes, and solutions. This reflects our awareness of the global nature of many of the important environmental challenges currently faced by society and the challenges that they bring to the environmental sciences. The SETAC World Congress will take place May 21-25, 2000 in Brighton, United Kingdom. For more information contact the SETAC Europe Office at 32-2-772-72-81 or setac@ping.be.

Silicon Valley's Environment

Is the Silicon Valley's environment getting better or worse? Learn about the health of the Bay and Silicon Valley in a recently released report by the Silicon Valley Environmental Partnership.

The Silicon Valley 1999 Environmental Index: Taking the Pulse of Silicon Valley's Environment is a 40-page report that provides a detailed view of trends in the quality of Silicon Valley's environment. This report was published by the Silicon Valley Environmental Partnership (http://www.svep.org) in order to increase the understanding of environmental issues among community leaders and decision-makers, residents, and workers. The report aims to present objective, fact-based information about environmental trends to foster more informed decision-making.

The report summarizes high-level trend information about resource use, population, air and water quality, species and habitats, and hazardous materials in Silicon Valley. It documents the progress that the Valley has made toward restoring a healthy natural environment, and charts those areas where declines in the Valley's natural environment must be reversed if it is to achieve a sustainable community. Of the 23 indicators tracked, 5 show a positive trend, 11 show a negative trend, and 5 show a reversal of previously positive progress.

To request your copy of Silicon Valley 1999 Environmental Index: Taking the Pulse of Silicon Valley's Environment, contact the Peninsula Conservation Center at (650) 962-9876 or info@pccf.org. The report may also be viewed at http://www.svep.org.

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RMP Calendar

Monday, January 24, 2000
Steering Committee Meeting at SFEI offices, Richmond Field Station. Call (510) 430-0801 for more information.

March 1-3, 2000
Interagency Ecological Program Annual Workshop. Pacific Grove, California. Visit http://www.iep.ca.gov or contact Zach Hymanson at zachary@water.ca.gov for more information.

Monday, March 13, 2000
The Regional Monitoring Program's Annual Meeting. Time and place to be announced. Call Gabriele Marek (510) 231-5713 or gabriele@sfei.org for more information.

April 10-12, 2000
ASTM Tenth Symposium on Environmental Toxicology and Risk Assessment. Toronto, Ontario, Canada. For more information contact Bruce Greenberg (519) 888-4567 ext.3209 or greenber@sciborg.uwaterloo.ca.

November 12-16, 2000
SETAC 21st Annual Meeting. Nashville, Tennessee. For more information visit http://www.setac.org.

Announcements

New Reports in Print

Relationship Between Sediment Contamination and Toxicity in San Francisco Bay has just been published in Volume 48 Issue 4-5 of Marine Environmental Research. To order reprints please contact Elsevier Science Ltd. at http://www.elsevier.com.

An Overview of Issues Identified by Contaminant Monitoring in San Francisco Bay has just been published in the Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program Proceedings. For ordering information call Gabriele Marek at (510) 231-5713.

The 1997 Annual Report of the San Francisco Estuary Regional Monitoring Program is now available. To receive a hard copy or cd-rom version, please contact Gabriele Marek (510) 231-5713 or gabriele@sfei.org. The report is also available on-line at http://www.sfei.org/rmp.

San Francisco Estuary Institute
7770 Pardee Lane
Oakland, CA 94621-1424
(510) 746-SFEI (7334)
Fax (510) 746-7300
www.sfei.org