Monitoring

Monitoring Sites Map

Monitoring Program Overview

The Sacramento Stormwater Quality Partnership began monitoring efforts in 1990. While technology and techniques have changed over the years, the Partnership’s goals and objectives have not. The purpose of the Monitoring Program is to:

• Provide required data to assess compliance with permit
• Provide measurement for the success of the Stormwater Quality Improvement Plan (SQIP) and implementation of Best Management Practices (BMP’s)
• Assess and characterize the impacts of urban runoff discharges
• Identify sources of pollution
• Assess the overall health and long term trends in receiving water quality

Receiving Water Monitoring

River Monitoring

Since 1992, river monitoring has taken place on the Sacramento and American Rivers at least six times a year. Currently, there are two sampling locations along the Sacramento River and they include Veteran’s Bridge and Freeport Bridge. River monitoring is conducted at three locations along the American River and they are Nimbus Dam, Business 80 and Discovery Park. The samples are analyzed for many pollutants including bacteria, metals, pesticides, and herbicides. 

Creek Monitoring

Creek Monitoring occurs on Arcade, Morrison, and Willow Creeks four 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.

Our staff collects River and Creek samples 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 Monitoring

Urban discharge samples are collected from locations where rain only comes in contact with urbanized areas. 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 five times during a monitoring year. The schedule alternates with two years of monitoring followed by one year off. 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. The monitoring locations receive stormwater runoff from areas with residential, urban, and industrial land uses.

Bioassessment Monitoring

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. These organisms are used to help us determine the condition of local waterways. 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 involves evaluating long-term trends in biological data over time. In 2004, the Sacramento Stormwater Quality Partnership began Bioassessment Monitoring along Willow and Laguna Creeks. In 2005, Bioassessment Monitoring will take place on Morrison and Arcade Creeks.

Additional Pesticide Monitoring

Because pesticides can be so harmful to our waterways, our staff performs additional pesticide monitoring to identify any problem areas where pesticides may be entering the creeks. Agricultural areas as well as residential areas are of concern due to the use of pesticides.

In addition to the pesticide monitoring that was performed at the receiving water sites, pesticide monitoring on several urban creeks was performed during the dormant spray season in 2003/2004. Elder Creek, Elk Grove Creek, Natomas East Main Drain, and Morrison Creek (upper watershed) were chosen for this monitoring. Water samples from each site were analyzed for chlorpyrifos and diazinon, two organophosphate (OP) pesticides.

Rainwater

In 2003/2004, rain water was monitored at two sites, one in and out of the urban area. Five rain events were captured and analyzed. Rainwater monitoring helps to identify contaminants that are carried and redistributed by rain and clouds. 

Toxicity

The definition of toxicity is the quality of being poisonous or harmful. Toxicity testing starts by placing a text 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 was performed in 2003/2004 on five receiving water locations. The locations included the Sacramento River at Freeport, the American River at Discovery Park, Morrison Creek, Arcade Creek, and Willow Creek. The testing included chronic (long-term) toxicity evaluations on Ceriodaphnia dubia and fathead minnows.