MonitoringProgram Overview | River Monitoring | Creek Monitoring | Urban Discharge Monitoring | Bioassessment Monitoring | Toxicity | Additional Information Monitoring Program Overview
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Creek Monitoring occurs on Arcade and Willow Creeks approximately 3 times a year. The samples are collected during both the wet and dry season. The samples, whenever possible, are collected and analyzed to coincide with river monitoring.
River and Creek samples are collected to keep track of water quality over a long period of time and during different seasons. The water quality results help to determine the effect of the developed area within Sacramento County on our local waterways.
Urban discharge samples are collected to characterize the quality of urban runoff in the Sacramento area. By sampling the water quality of the urban discharge, we can learn more about the pollutants of storm water runoff entering our creeks and rivers. Once pollutants are identified, steps to prevent the pollution can be taken.
Three urban discharge locations, Strong Ranch Slough, Sump 104, and Sump 111, are monitored approximately five times during a monitoring year. The schedule alternates with two years of monitoring followed by one year off. These discharge monitoring locations drain watershed areas with a variety of land uses including residential, commercial, and industrial uses and characterize runoff generated by areas developed before the implementation of stormwater management practices. In 2008 a North Natomas location is scheduled to be identified and monitored to better characterize runoff water quality discharged from newly developed sites that were designed using stormwater management practices. The urban discharge samples are analyzed for the same pollutants as the river samples and whenever possible, urban discharge and river monitoring are conducted on the same day or storm event.
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Bioassessment monitoring is a way to measure the health of a stream by counting the different types of “bugs” in the stream. Once the “bugs” are counted, the results are compared to other streams in the area that are considered healthy. In particular, bioassessment monitoring looks at the aquatic benthic macro invertebrates (BMIs) and habitat evaluations as indicators of stream health. BMIs are organisms without a backbone that can be seen with the naked eye. The community make-up of BMIs such as mayflies, stoneflies, and caddis flies change in response to varying degrees of water pollution and habitat alteration. Bioassessment also involves an evaluation of long-term trends in biological data over time. Changes to physical habitat, geomorphology and benthic biota provide an additional indicator of the water health of the receiving water. Sampling is performed at various locations of Arcade Creek, Willow Creek, and Laguna Creek. Two creeks are monitored each year on a rotational basis.
The definition of toxicity is the quality of being poisonous or harmful. Toxicity testing starts by placing a group of fish or insect (i.e. minnow) into a sample of creek or river water. The test lasts for several days and each day scientists check the samples to identify any problems with the introduced organism. When the test is complete, the results are compared with a test done in clean water.
Toxicity testing will be performed during the next Permit term (2008-2013) at river and creek monitoring locations including the Sacramento River, American River, Arcade Creek, and Willow Creek. The testing include toxicity evaluations on Ceriodaphnia dubia and fathead minnows.