California Water Boards' Annual Performance Report - Fiscal Year  2017-18 

PLAN & ASSESS: SURFACE WATER MONITORING (SWAMP)

MEASUREMENTS - Data last updated on:

Click on a Region in the Map below, or in the table below, if the map isn't visible, to see data for that Region.

WHAT THE MEASURE IS SHOWING

WHY THIS MEASURE IS IMPORTANT

This measure displays the field sampling efforts that the various regional and statewide SWAMP programs conduct each fiscal year in order to determine the status and trends of water quality condition. Each regional and statewide SWAMP program strategizes which group of parameters to sample for at each sampling site in order to answer specific monitoring questions. Displaying multiple fiscal years shows which parameters are normally collected for all fiscal years and which parameter is only collected for a specific year. Monitoring and assessment of the State's surface waters provides data and information to determine the status and trends of their water quality condition. This data and information also allows the Water Boards to establish water quality standards, determine compliance with requirements, guide actions to protect these waters, and evaluate the effectiveness of pollution control efforts. The Water Boards' Surface Water Ambient Monitoring Program (SWAMP) monitors and assesses the State’s surface waters, directly and through collaborative partnerships, such as with the California Department of Water Resources and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, to support water resource management. Data from SWAMP's monitoring programs, such as the Bioassessment, Bioaccumulation, and Stream Pollution Trends programs, are used to answer priority water quality management questions, and to assess beneficial uses for the 305(b) and 303(d) Integrated Report.

TECHNICAL CONSIDERATIONS

• Data Source: SWAMP Database. Period: July 1, 2009 - June 30, 2018 . Extracted on August 2018.
• Unit of Measure: Number of Site Visits, and collections conducted during the fiscal year by Water Board and other agencies. Information includes projects managed by the Water Board including the State Board Bioaccumulation Oversight Group, the State Board Stream Pollution Trends, the State Board Perennial Stream Assessment and the State Board Reference Condition Management Program.
• Data Definitions: Site Visits: A visit to a monitoring station on a given day to make observations, take measurements, and/or collect water samples for analysis (known as a Site Visit). Collections: Samples collected during a Site Visit may undergo chemical, physical, toxicological, or biological analyses in the field or laboratory. See Glossary below for additional definitions.
• References: The Water Boards' SWAMP Program

GLOSSARY

Surface Water Ambient Monitoring Program (SWAMP)

Water Board program responsible for coordinating all water quality monitoring conducted by the State and Regional Water Boards. In addition, SWAMP promotes collaboration with other entities by proposing conventions related to monitoring design, measurement indicators, data management, quality assurance, and assessment strategies, so that data from many programs can be used in integrated assessments.

Site Visit

A Site Visit represents one visit to a site to measure or collect.

Collections

There are five Collection Categories - Chemistry, Field, Taxonomy, Tissue, and Toxicity. Each Collection Category summarizes counts of one or more data types (e.g. chemistry, habitat, toxicity, etc.) sampled during the Site Visit. Sample costs vary substantially depending on the data type; for example a field pH measurement costs around $3, while a sediment toxicity identification evaluation costs around $6,300. Field QA including field duplicates and/or blanks are NOT counted.

Chemistry Collections

This measure represents the sum of the following data type counts: Water Chemistry and Sediment Chemistry.

Water Chemistry - 1 count represents all water chemistry collected at a single site on a given day regardness of number of parameters to be measured.
Sediment Chemistry - 1 count represents all sediment chemistry collected at single site on a given day regardless of number of parameters to be measured.

Field Collections

This measure represents the sum of the following data type counts: Field Measures, Habitat, and Continuous Monitoring.

Field Measures - 1 count represents all field measures taken at a single site on a given day regardless of number of parameters to be measured.
Habitat - 1 count represents any physical habitat observations for bioassessment collections or routine field observations for water quality or tissue collections at a single site on a given day. Each transect is counted towards the total.
Continuous Monitoring - 1 count represents a deployment at a single site spanning a discrete period of time.

Taxonomy Collections

This measure represents the sum of the following data type counts: Algae and Benthics.

Algae - 1 count represents algae collections at a single site on a given day.
Benthics - 1 count represents benthic invertebrate collections at a single site on a given day.

Tissue Collections

This measure represents the sum of the Tissue data type count.

Tissue - 1 count represents a composite sample, made up of either individuals or multiple fish, at a single site on a given day regardless of number of parameters to be measured. At a single site, each specie collected gets counted.

Toxicity Collections

This measure represents the sum of the following data type counts: Water Toxicity and Sediment Toxicity.

Water Toxicity - 1 count represents all water toxicity samples collected at a single site on a given day regardless of number of parameters to be measured.
Sediment Toxicity - 1 count represents all Sediment toxicity samples collected at a single site on a given day regardless of number of parameters to be measured.

Parameter

A parameter is a measurable or quantifiable characteristic or feature of water quality, such as temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen, sediment, bacteria, metals, nutrients, pesticides, and toxicity.

Ambient Monitoring

Ambient monitoring refers to the collection of information about the status of the physical, chemical, toxicological, and biological characteristics of the environment.

Clean Water Act Section 303(d) List:

Under the federal Clean Water Act (CWA), states must submit the CWA section 303(d) list to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) every two years. The Water Boards assess water quality data for California's waters to determine if they contain pollutants at levels that exceed protective water quality standards. Waters that exceed their standards are listed as impaired on the State's 303(d) list, or list of impaired waters (also known as water quality limited segments). Since 2010, both the CWA Sections 303(d) list and the CWA Section 305(b) report are being prepared as an Integrated Report. For more information, please see the Integrated Report page.

Clean Water Act Section 305(b) Report

The federal CWA Section 305(b) requires each state to report on the quality condition of its waters. The State Water Board submits its water quality condition assessment report to the USEPA every two years. The report provides water quality information to the general public and serves as the basis for USEPA's National Water Quality Inventory Report to Congress. Since 2010, both the CWA Sections 303(d) list and the CWA Section 305(b) report are being prepared as an Integrated Report. For more information, please see the Integrated Report page.

Impaired Water Body

An impaired water body is also known as a water quality-limited segment on the State's CWA Section 303(d) list. Impaired waters are listed as specific water body-pollutant combinations that are not meeting protective water quality standards.

Surface Water

Waters that are naturally open to the atmosphere such as rivers, lakes, reservoirs, ponds, estuaries, and ocean. These waters form from collected water on the ground, and are naturally replenished through precipitation and naturally lost through evaporation and sub-surface seepage into the groundwater.