All news related to Regional Monitoring
Workplan developed for third cycle of SMC’s regional stream monitoring program The Southern California Stormwater Monitoring Coalition (SMC) has finalized plans for the third cycle of its Regional Watershed Monitoring Program that kicks off this spring. The cyclical program’s workplan – ... More |
Bight ’18 finds local sportfish within ‘safe to eat’ thresholds Contamination levels in the tissues of commonly caught Southern California sportfish were found to be within “safe to eat” thresholds for consumption at least once a week during the Southern ... More |
Two Bight ’18 Sediment Quality reports nearing completion The Southern California Bight 2018 Regional Monitoring Program is preparing to publish the third volume of its Sediment Quality assessment reports by the end of the year, with a fourth ... More |
Monitoring framework drafted for assessing health of estuaries statewide SCCWRP and its partners have developed a proposed statewide monitoring framework for assessing the health of California’s coastal estuaries, including two dozen estuarine Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). The draft framework, ... More |
Monitoring framework being developed to assess health of estuaries statewide SCCWRP and its partners have begun working to develop a standardized, statewide monitoring framework for assessing the condition of California’s coastal estuaries, including the State’s 24 estuarine Marine Protected Areas ... More |
Second Bight ’18 Sediment Quality assessment report published The Southern California Bight 2018 Regional Monitoring Program has published the second of its Sediment Quality assessment reports, and two others are undergoing internal review later this summer. The Bight ... More |
SMC study suggests not all strategies to protect health of erosion-prone streams created equal The Southern California Stormwater Monitoring Coalition (SMC) has completed an analysis shedding light on whether next-generation management strategies for reducing erosion risk in streams could be more effective at protecting ... More |
Initial round of bioanalytical screening completed for Bight ’18 sediment, fish samples SCCWRP and its partners have completed screening Southern California Bight sediment and fish tissue samples for chemical contaminants that activate the aryl hydrocarbon receptor – the first of three bioanalytical ... More |
First Bight ’18 Sediment Quality assessment report published, three others nearing completion The Southern California Bight 2018 Regional Monitoring Program has published the first of its Sediment Quality assessment reports, with three others expected to undergo internal review this summer. The Bight ... More |
SMC develops roadmap to improve runoff water quality The Southern California Stormwater Monitoring Coalition (SMC) has unveiled a comprehensive, multi-faceted research agenda that lays out a vision and roadmap for how the region’s stormwater management community will collaborate ... More |
Sites being identified for evaluating effectiveness of stormwater BMPs The Southern California Stormwater Monitoring Coalition (SMC) has begun identifying about a half-dozen sites that will serve as case studies for examining the effectiveness of stormwater BMPs (best management practices) ... More |
Review of data underway for Bight ’18 Sediment Quality element The Bight ’18 Sediment Quality element is on track to finalize and publish its final assessment reports by spring 2020. The Sediment Quality element of the Southern California Bight 2018 ... More |
SMC’s renews Master Agreement through 2024 The Southern California Stormwater Monitoring Coalition in July renewed its Master Agreement for another five years, continuing the SMC’s research and monitoring agenda through 2024. SMC member agencies include eight ... More |
Bight ’18 Microbiology element preparing to kick off field sampling for coliphage method evaluation study Participants of the Southern California Bight 2018 Regional Monitoring Program’s Microbiology element will initiate field sampling in August for a study evaluating the relevance and reliability of using coliphage viruses ... More |
Bight ’18 sediment, fish samples to be screened using bioanalytical assays SCCWRP and its partners in June will begin screening sediment and sportfish tissue samples collected from across the Southern California Bight for bioactive chemical contaminants using bioanalytical screening assays. More ... More |
Bight ’18 HABs study preparing to track freshwater cyanotoxins in coastal zone The Southern California Bight 2018 Regional Monitoring Program’s Harmful Algal Blooms element has tentatively greenlighted a study that will explore whether freshwater cyanotoxins are being transported in the coastal zone. ... More |
Bight ’18 pilot study to assess how acidification is impacting marine calcifiers The Ocean Acidification element of the Southern California Bight 2018 Regional Monitoring Program has launched a pilot study examining how ocean acidification is impacting sensitive marine calcifiers in Southern California’s ... More |
SMC regional monitoring to include stormwater BMP effectiveness evaluation The Southern California Stormwater Monitoring Coalition has begun designing the next five-year cycle of its stream monitoring program to include a regional evaluation of the effectiveness of stormwater BMPs (best ... More |
Field sampling completed for Bight ’18 Sediment Quality element Participants of the Southern California Bight 2018 Regional Monitoring Program’s Sediment Quality element have finished collecting seafloor sediment samples from about 400 sites across the Southern California Bight. The field ... More |
Bight ’18 HABs element developing method to track impacts of cyanotoxins in coastal waters The Harmful Algal Blooms element of the Southern California Bight 2018 Regional Monitoring Program has begun working to develop an assessment method for tracking the ecological impacts of freshwater cyanotoxins ... More |
Bight ’18 Microbiology element initiates lab training for coliphage-based water-quality monitoring method Participants of the Southern California Bight 2018 Regional Monitoring Program’s Microbiology element have begun laboratory training for a study that will evaluate the relevance and reliability of using coliphage viruses ... More |
SMC conducting trash surveys in watersheds to support Bight ’18 The Southern California Stormwater Monitoring Coalition (SMC) has launched trash sampling surveys in wadeable streams across coastal Southern California to support the Southern California Bight 2018 Regional Monitoring Program’s efforts ... More |
Bight ’18 field sampling underway to assess sediment quality The sampling window for the Southern California Bight 2018 Regional Monitoring Program opened July 1, with participants starting to collect seafloor sediments to evaluate the chemical, toxicological and biological health ... More |
Management impacts of stream biointegrity policies explored in new SMC report The Southern California Stormwater Monitoring Coalition (SMC) has released a comprehensive new report chronicling how the region’s stream management community will potentially be impacted by new and proposed changes to ... More |
Bight ’18 keeps focus on key issues of management concern More than 80 environmental agencies will examine new and emerging developments in water-quality science and management during the 2018 cycle of the Southern California Bight Regional Monitoring Program, which initiates ... More |
SMC open-data portal under development to streamline data management The Southern California Stormwater Monitoring Coalition (SMC) has begun developing a comprehensive data management system intended to streamline data submission, quality-control checks and data analysis. Built on the Esri ArcGIS ... More |
Bight ’18 kicks off with five study elements Participants of the Southern California Bight Regional Monitoring Program have developed five main study elements for the program’s 2018 cycle that will explore different facets of how human activities have ... More |
Bioassays show promise for CEC screening in SMC study SCCWRP and its partners have demonstrated in a proof-of-concept study that commercially available bioanalytical tools have the potential to cost-effectively screen Southern California waterways for the presence of bioactive contaminants ... More |
New Bight ’18 tools to improve data management workflows SCCWRP has developed a series of new tools and automations for the 2018 cycle of the Southern California Bight Regional Monitoring Program designed to streamline and enhance data management. Known ... More |
Effort underway to clean up, standardize historical Bight monitoring data SCCWRP and its member agencies have initiated a project to clean up and standardize decades of data they’ve collected from across the Southern California Bight during routine environmental monitoring. The ... More |
SMC kicks off Year 3 field sampling for second cycle of stream monitoring program The Southern California Stormwater Monitoring Coalition in March kicked off Year 3 of field sampling for the second five-year cycle of its regional stream monitoring program. The SMC Regional Watershed ... More |
Bight ’13 CIA element publishes integrated summary reports The integrated findings of the Contaminant Impact Assessment (CIA) element of Bight ’13 have been published in a final assessment report and an accompanying, 12-page executive summary intended for a ... More |
SMC kicks off Year 3 field sampling for second cycle of stream monitoring program The Southern California Stormwater Monitoring Coalition in March kicked off Year 3 of field sampling for the second five-year cycle of its regional stream monitoring program. The SMC Regional Watershed ... More |
Bight ’13 CIA element publishes integrated summary reports The integrated findings of the Contaminant Impact Assessment (CIA) element of Bight ’13 have been published in a final assessment report and an accompanying, 12-page executive summary intended for a ... More |
ELAP one-year follow-up review finds accrediting body back on track An expert advisory panel convened by SCCWRP in 2015 to evaluate the state’s accrediting body for environmental laboratories has completed a one-year follow-up review of the program, concluding that it ... More |
SMC completes analysis of bioassessment scores for engineered channels The Southern California Stormwater Monitoring Coalition has completed a comprehensive analysis of the range of ecological condition scores obtained when engineered channels across coastal Southern California are scored using existing ... More |
SMC kicks off second-year sampling with new program elements The Southern California Stormwater Monitoring Coalition kicked off second-year sampling in March for the second cycle of its Regional Watershed Monitoring Program. New program elements being incorporated into the second ... More |
SMC samples advance to nontargeted analysis phase of CEC monitoring framework SCCWRP and its collaborators have advanced some of the 31 water samples collected by the Southern California Stormwater Monitoring Coalition (SMC) to the nontargeted phase of chemical analysis, a recognition ... More |
Bight ’13 regional monitoring wrapping up major elements Three of the five elements of the Southern California Bight 2013 Regional Monitoring Program are winding down as a series of final assessment reports is published over the next few weeks. ... More |
XPRIZE-developed pH sensors being tested as Bight profilers SCCWRP and its four POTW member agencies have kicked off a year-long effort to evaluate whether ocean pH monitoring instruments developed through an international XPRIZE competition can be used effectively ... More |
Massive 3-year sampling effort for San Diego Bay bioaccumulation study wraps up Scientists have finished collecting and analyzing more than 260 animal samples from San Diego Bay in one of the most comprehensive Southern California investigations ever conducted into how contamination is transferred ... More |
Bight ’13 toxicity data suggest sediment quality is improving Sediment toxicity testing conducted as part of the 2013 Southern California Bight Regional Monitoring Program has revealed evidence of continuing improvement to sediment quality, according to the findings of the ... More |
SCCWRP applies bioassessment index to streams statewide A new scoring tool that was developed to assess the biological condition of California’s wadeable streams has been applied for the first time to all wadeable streams statewide, with the ... More |
Stream survey tracks biological degradation across Southern California A five-year monitoring study of Southern California’s perennial wadeable streams has found that 75% of the region’s 4,300 miles of streams are degraded, with no discernable improvements in the health ... More |