The San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board is developing a Wetlands Regional Monitoring Program (WRMP) to evaluate the long-term ecological effectiveness of wetland permitting and restoration. Built on the State Water Board’s Wetland and Riparian Area Monitoring Plan (WRAMP) and the U.S. EPA’s three-level monitoring framework, the program integrates broad geospatial mapping (Level 1), rapid field evaluations (Level 2), and intensive site-specific testing (Level 3) to standardize regional data collection.

Because regulatory monitoring for 401 Water Quality Certifications and Supplemental Environmental Projects (SEPs) typically ends after five years, the region lacks critical data on long-term project performance and compliance with "no-net-loss" wetland goals. To address this gap, the San Diego Water Board and SFEI-ASC conducted a demonstration project using the California Rapid Assessment Method (CRAM)—a standardized Level 2 tool—to establish a common measure of ecological condition across completed mitigation and restoration sites and inform future permitting requirements.