The Bay Regional Monitoring Program (RMP) provides water quality regulators and policy-makers with information they need to manage the Bay effectively. The RMP is an innovative collaborative effort between SFEI, the Regional Water Quality Control Board, and the regulated discharger community. The Program was established in 1993, and has an annual budget of $3.5 million.
Results of RMP monitoring of loads from the Delta to San Francisco Bay were recently published in the journal Water Environment Research. The article follows up on a paper published in 2009 in Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry describing mercury concentrations and loads from this large river system to the Bay.
The overarching goal of the RMP is to collect data and communicate information about water quality in San Francisco Bay in support of management decisions. Dredging activities are affected by management decisions about disposal of contaminated sediments, dredged sediment volumes, and the impacts of dredging on aquatic life. The RMP teamed with the Bay Planning Coalition on a fact sheet describing how the RMP has studied these issues to ensure that management decisions are based on sound science.
