Central Coast Ambient Monitoring Program (CCAMP)

From CCoWS Wiki
Revision as of 00:58, 10 April 2012 by Evandl (Talk | contribs)

Jump to: navigation, search

Summary

  • Mission Statement: To collect, assess, and disseminate scientifically based water quality information to aid decision makers and the public in maintaining, restoring, and enhancing water quality and associated beneficial uses.
  • Watersheds
    • The CCAMP monitoring strategy to characterize watersheds requires dividing the Region into five watershed rotation areas and conducting sampling each year in one of the areas. Sites are placed at the lower ends of tributaries and along the mainstem, with additional sites placed to characterize changes in land use, or to focus on waterbodies of special concern. Over a five-year period all of the Hydrologic Units in the Region are monitored and evaluated. Hydrologic Unit reports are available on the CCAMP website.
  • CCAMP uses a variety of monitoring approaches to characterize the status and trends in watersheds, including:
    • Benthic invertebrate bioassessment and habitat characterization
    • Monthly conventional water quality sampling
    • Chemical analysis of tissue and sediment
    • Water and sediment toxicity
    • Flow
  • Coastal Confluences
    • The CCAMP monitoring strategy for coastal confluences includes ongoing sampling at thirty-three river and stream mouths, just above salt water influence. This program serves as a "census" of water quality conditions in all of our larger watersheds, and provides a basis for detecting long-term trends and assessing broad scale performance of water quality management efforts. Coastal confluence monitoring is conducted on an ongoing basis, so that we keep our "fingers on the pulse" of watershed health between watershed rotational monitoring.
  • Monitoring efforts at coastal confluences include:
    • Annual bioassessment using benthic invertebrates
    • Monthly conventional water quality sampling
    • Chemical analysis of tissue and sediment
    • Water and sediment toxicity
  • CCAMP sponsors special studies and supports ocean monitoring activities by partner organizations.
    • The Central Coast Long-term Environmental Assessment Network (CCLEAN) is a discharger-funded ocean monitoring program in the Monterey Bay area including several programs that assess the loading and potential impacts of pollutants from effluent discharges into Monterey Bay. Recently, the program has focused on determining whether endocrine disrupting compounds are a concern in effluent discharges.. CCLEAN also monitors for nutrients, pathogen indicators, and persistent organic pollutants in water, tissue, and sediment CCLEAN

U.C. Davis and Department of Fish and Game researchers (in collaboration with CCAMP and CCLEAN, among others) are uncovering issues related to marine mammal health in the Central Coast region. Go to the CCAMP reports page to download a number of published findings on pathogens, bioaccumulating chemicals, domoic acid, and related topics..

Nearshore monitoring for chemicals in fish and shellfish tissue is conducted by the SWAMP program and the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment through contracts with the California Department of Fish and Game. The CCAMP website includes access to this data. Additional information can be found on the SWAMP webpage for the Bioaccumulation Monitoring Program.

Bacterial monitoring is conducted by local agencies and volunteer organizations along the California coast. Check the water quality at your local beach.

  • Groundwater