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RMP Status & Trends Monitoring Results Search

This information on this page is provided to help viewers access and understand the output from the RMP data access tool. The information below describes the type of data available, how the data are presented, RMP sampling strategies, and links to other RMP data products. If you have questions not answered on this page please contact sarahl@sfei.org.

Table of Contents for Data Access Tool Output

Matrix Definitions - provides definitions used to identify the test material and matrix

Qualifier Definitions - provides information that should be considered when interpreting test results, and identifies "primary" qualifiers

Results - Cross tab - data in a cross tabulated Excel worksheet

Results - Flat file - data in a flat file Excel worksheet

Data available

The data query tool page provides access to water, sediment and bivalve tissue data from the San Francisco Estuary collected by the Regional Monitoring Program for Water Quality (RMP) since 1993. Measurements vary by year and material, but typically include a suite of contaminants (metals and organics) and ancillary data. Missing data are either not available (e.g., all parameters were not measured in every year), or the data are being reanalyzed and will be made available at a later date.

All data have gone through extensive QA/QC and only data that have successfully passed the QA process are provided. However, the data query tool page does not provide access to the QA/QC information, which is available here. Other types of monitoring data not currently available through this data query tool (such as fish tissue contaminants) are available here.

Data not available

Year Matrix Analyte Group Comments
1993-1997 Water Alkylated PAHs Not available
1996 Bivalves Alkylated PAHs Not available
1993, 1996 Sediment Alkylated PAHs Not available
2002-2007 Bivalves Trace elements Trace element analysis has been reduced to a five-year interval. Trace elements will be analyzed next in 2008.
2003-2006 Water Toxicity Because the RMP S&T aquatic toxicity monitoring in the Estuary has shown little toxicity over the past several years, aquatic toxicity sampling has been scaled back to a screening effort approximately every five years. Samples are scheduled to be collected in 2007 and 2012.
2003 Sediment PCBs, PBDEs, Pesticides Samples are being reanalyzed
2004 Bivalve PBDEs, PCBs, PESTs Samples may be reanalyzed
2004 Bivalve PAHs Samples may be reanalyzed
2005 Bivalve PAHs Samples may be reanalyzed
2006 Water Diazinon and chlorpyrifos Analysis pending
2006 Bivalves PCBs, PBDEs, PAHs, Pesticides Analysis pending
2007 Bivalves All Bivalves were not deployed in 2007. Sampling design changed to every other year.

Viewing results

The data query tool output is provided as an Excel file, within which are separate worksheets containing the results in cross-tabulated and "flat" formats. The flat format is especially suitable for import into other software platforms, such as Access or SAS, for further analyses. A key to abbreviations is also included.

All qualifiers or only the "primary" qualifiers may be selected for display in the web query tool output. The default is to show only the primary qualifiers. Primary qualifiers are DO, DOXXX, ND, NR, NRS, NRT, R, and SL. The primary qualifier SL is used to identify a significant toxicity test, for more information on the specific statistical comparison(s) conducted use the "Show All Qualifiers" option.

Information for percent solids, percent moisture, and percent lipids are reported only in the flat file Excel worksheet. Beginning in 2002, the water quality measurement total suspended solids (TSS) was replaced by the parameter suspended sediment concentration (SSC).

Organic group sums, for example "Sum of PCBs (SFEI)", are calculated by the RMP based on the target analytes which constitute a group; the exact number and the group constituents may vary over the years.

All metals are reported as near totals.

While every effort is made to obtain the method detection limit (MDL) value from the labs, if none is available other detection limits may be provided (e.g., instrument detection limit, sample detection limit, reporting limit). However, all detection/reporting limits are stored in the MDL field. Although some MDL values may appear truncated in the cross-tabulated output (e.g., 0.00), full results are provided in the flat file Excel worksheet.

Two reference station codes (T-0 and T-1) are included in the tissue results for some years. T-0 indicates that the reference bivalve was analyzed before being deployed. T-1 indicates that the reference bivalve was analyzed after being deployed.

Note: The results provided by the web query tool may differ slightly from those previously reported in the RMP Annual Reports and static data tables, due in part to ongoing updates to the dataset, standardization of the qualifiers reported, changes in the handling of replicate samples, and changes in the method used to sum the dissolved and particulate water fractions.

RMP sampling strategy

From 1993-2001 RMP sampling sites for water, sediment and bivalve tissue were at fixed locations throughout the Estuary. Starting in 2002 the RMP changed to a random sampling design for both water and sediment. The bivalve sampling sites remain at fixed locations. All sites, whether random or fixed, are associated with an Estuary region.

Are results expressed in wet weight or dry weight?

  • Sediment: trace elements and trace organics are reported in dry weight
  • Bivalve tissue: trace elements and trace organics are reported in dry weight
  • Fish tissue and bird eggs: generally reported in wet or fresh weight; some parameters may also be reported in dry weight, e.g. mercury in fish (as indicated in the worksheet)

Information on coeluting PCB congeners

During the analytical process, some PCB congeners (co-eluting PCBs) cannot be distinguished as separate congeners and thus are quantified as a complex of one or more congeners. The RMP has identified 40 of the most environmentally prevalent congeners (out of the 208) to report. When a reportable congener is co-eluting with another congener, we flag this result according to the following rules:

  1. If a reportable congener co-elutes with another reportable congener than the dominant congener (established from the literature) contains a qualifier "DO" and the quantitative result. For example PCB 056 often co-elutes with PCB 060. The dominant congener, PCB 060, will have "DO" in the qualifier field and the concentration measured in the result field. PCB 056, the nondominant congener, will have "DO060" in the qualifier field referring the user to look for the quantitative result in congener PCB 060, alerting them that the result is a mixture of more than 1 congener, and identifying the dominant congener that makes up the highest percent of the mixture.

  2. If a reportable congener co-elutes with a non-reportable congener than the reportable congener has the qualifier "DO" and the quantitative result.

Additional RMP documentation

Sampling maps and coordinates, field methods, QA/QC data, Quality Assurance Project Plan (QAPP), Status and Trends Annual Monitoring Results, and additional information are available here.

Comments or Questions

Please send comments or questions to sarahl@sfei.org.