Clean Water Program

Ben Greenfield and Rachel Allen recently published an article in Chemosphere titled “Polychlorinated biphenyl spatial patterns in San Francisco Bay forage fish.”

A multi-sensor sonde and a nitrate sensor were deployed at the Dumbarton Bridge on July 2nd, 2013 to provide temporally-intensive information on water quality and phytoplankton bloom dynamics. We are currently measuring temperature, conductivity, turbidity, dissolved oxygen, pH, fluorescent dissolved organic matter, chlorophyll-a, phycocyanin and nitrate.

A study funded in part by the Regional Monitoring Program that analyzed the embryotoxicity of a PBDE mixture to common terns and American kestrels has recently been published in Chemosphere. The manuscript by Rattner et al. (2013), “Comparative embryotoxicity of a pentabrominated diphenyl ether mixture to common terns (Sterna hirundo) and American kestrels (Falco sparverius)", is available online.

This year, the Regional Monitoring Program (RMP) partnered with the San Francisco Estuary Partnership (SFEP) to host the RMP Annual Meeting in conjunction with the State of the Estuary Conference. The conference was held at the Oakland Marriott in downtown Oakland on October 29th and 30th. The program can be downloaded here

The State Water Resources Control Board's Surface Water Ambient Monitoring Program (SWAMP) has published findings from a statewide survey of contaminants in sport fish in California rivers and streams. This study was the final of three statewide surveys that investigated sport fish contamination in California. The previous two reports detailed contaminant concentrations in California's lakes and reservoirs, and the coast.

In a partnership with the Coastal and Marine Mercury Ecosystem Research Collaborative (C-MERC), RMP scientists have contributed to a manuscript focusing on the most promising avenues for reducing methylmercury contamination in the Bay Area's aquatic food webs.

SFEI-ASC Scientists gave 5 presentations and displayed 3 posters at the 7th Biennial Bay-Delta Science Conference

This annual RMP contribution will be distributed as an insert in the October issue of Estuary News, published by the San Francisco Estuary Partnership. This edition summarizes information on flame retardant concentrations and trends in San Francisco Bay