Library

In 2024, the Regional Monitoring Program for Water Quality in San Francisco Bay (RMP) is entering its 32nd year of collecting data and communicating information to support water quality management decisions. This Detailed Workplan and Budget describes the activities that will be completed in 2024, the proposed funding levels, and the deliverables for each task. 

The planned revenue from RMP fees for 2024 is $4,156k, with additional supplemental fees of $339k from municipal wastewater and $100k from municipal stormwater bringing the total revenue to $4,596k. The expected revenue is $5,216k as shown in Table 1 and Figures 1-2, which is reduced by $200k to account for the lower volume of dredged sediment being disposed of in the Bay, per the Long-Term Management Strategy (LTMS) plan. The $200k figure is a placeholder and the dredger contribution will be updated when we receive the final in-Bay dredge disposal volumes for calendar year 2023 (typically in March of the following year). The majority of the expenses in 2024 (71%) will be for Status and Trends monitoring and special studies (Tasks 6-7). The cost for running the RMP (Tasks 1-5) is $115k higher in 2024 than 2023 and funding allocations have been shifted slightly within each subtask.

The overarching goal of the Regional Monitoring Program for Water Quality in San Francisco Bay (RMP) is to answer the highest priority scientific questions faced by managers of Bay water quality. The RMP is an innovative collaboration between the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board, the regulated discharger community, the San Francisco Estuary Institute, and many other scientists and interested parties. The purpose of this document is to provide a concise overview of recent RMP activities and findings, and a look ahead to significant products anticipated in the next two years. The report includes:

• a brief summary of some of the most noteworthy findings of this multifaceted Program;
• a description of the management context that guides the Program; and
• a summary of progress to date and future plans for addressing priority water quality topics.

This report details plans associated with the Regional Monitoring Program for Water Quality in the San Francisco Estuary (RMP) deep bay sediment cruise. The RMP, through the Status and Trends monitoring program, conducts routine monitoring of water, sediment and biological tissue. Deep bay stations (water depth lower than 1 foot below MLLW) have been sampled for the Status and Trends sediment program since its inception.  The current monitoring design (reflective of changes made to the Program through the Status and Trends Review process) calls for sampling frequency of deep bay sediment for CECs, PBDEs, and ancillary analytes every five years during the dry season. Every ten years, metals, PAHs, and PCBs will also be sampled. For 2023, sampling operations will entail dry season sample collection at 16 RMP sediment sampling stations for CECs, PBDEs, and ancillary analytes in Central Bay, South Bay, and Lower South Bay.

This report details plans associated with the 2023 Regional Monitoring Program for Water Quality in the San Francisco Estuary (RMP) water cruise. The RMP water sampling program was redesigned in 2002 to adopt a randomized sampling design at thirty-one stations in place of the twenty-six base program stations sampled previously. In 2007, the number of stations was decreased to twenty-two stations, and it remains as such for 2023. The analytes for 2023 are based on the Status and Trends (S&T) Review process that started in 2020.

This is a sampling and analysis plan for the Bay Status and Trends (S&T) Prey Fish and Near-field / Margins Sediment monitoring for the Regional Monitoring Program for Water Quality in San Francisco Bay (RMP). Bay margins are defined by the RMP as extending from Mean Higher High Water (MHHW) to 1 foot below Mean Lower Low Water (MLLW). These mud flats and adjacent shallow areas of the Bay are productive and highly utilized by biota of interest (humans and wildlife). Near-field stations are located near watershed inputs in the Bay. Prey fish are a key matrix to monitoring the status and impacts of contaminants, especially near margin areas where they have shown strong contamination signals in previous RMP studies. This monitoring design provides a spatially-distributed characterization of contaminant concentrations in fish and sediment found within the margins of Central Bay, South Bay, and Lower South Bay. This study builds on previous S&T efforts to characterize surface sediment contamination across the Bay while piloting routine monitoring of prey fish. Additional samples outside of S&T will be collected for special studies. A subset of samples will be archived for potential future analysis of emerging contaminants or other analyte groups.

In 2022 the Regional Monitoring Program for Water Quality in San Francisco Bay (RMP) is entering its 31st year of collecting data and communicating information to support water quality management decisions. This Detailed Workplan and Budget describes the activities that will be completed in 2022, the proposed funding levels, and the deliverables for each task.In 2022 the Regional Monitoring Program for Water Quality in San Francisco Bay (RMP) is entering its 31st year of collecting data and communicating information to support water quality management decisions. This Detailed Workplan and Budget describes the activities that will be completed in 2022, the proposed funding levels, and the deliverables for each task.

The theme of the 2022 Pulse is "50 Years After the Clean Water Act." Nine different individuals or groups have contributed perspectives on progress to date and challenges ahead. This Pulse also includes summaries, from a historical perspective, on the major water quality parameters of concern in the Bay.   

In 2019 the Regional Monitoring Program for Water Quality in San Francisco Bay (RMP) is entering its 27th year of collecting data and communicating information to support water quality management decisions. This Detailed Workplan and Budget describes the activities that will be completed in 2019, the proposed funding levels, and the deliverables for each task.