Clean Water Program

Significant advances in analytical instrument techniques present a great opportunity for the RMP to conduct broad non-targeted scans of San Francisco Bay biota to potentially identify chemicals of emerging concern. Recent advancement in GC-GC time of flight and GC-LC time of flight at the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) has allowed NIST to screen human samples to determine which contaminants are accumulating in humans. NIST will apply a similar broad scan approach to San Francisco Estuary samples to identify previously unmonitored anthropogenic chemicals.

A critical need for prioritizing watersheds to monitor and model is an evaluation of land use characteristics that influence stormwater loads to the Estuary. Eight land use types have been identified as important for Southern California; however, the geology, contaminants of concern, and land use for the San Francisco Bay region are sufficiently different that it is not possible to use this classification system for our watershed.