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Coastal watershed and estuary restoration in the Monterey Bay area Active

By Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center May 9, 2022

Objectives: Support further work by the USGS and collaborating federal, state, and local agencies and academic partners in analyzing the effectiveness of restoration work in coastal watersheds and estuaries in the Monterey Bay area. The USGS will play a supporting role in field efforts led by NOAA and California State University - Monterey Bay to measure physical and ecological changes in the Carmel River watershed resulting from the largest dam removal in California.

This research is part of the project, “Sediment Transport in Coastal Environments.”

Newly graded former lakebed in background with the river running along at the foot of the slope.
Sources/Usage: Public Domain.
San Clemente Dam was a 106-foot-high concrete arch dam that was located approximately 18.5 miles from the Pacific Ocean on the Carmel River. It was built in 1921 to create a reservoir to support the growing residential, agricultural, and tourism-related development. Since the 1960s the reservoir had become increasingly sedimented, with over 90 percent of the reservoir filled. As a result, the dam no longer served a role in storing and supplying water. The California Department of Water Resources (CDWR) Division of the Safety of Dams issued a safety order for the dam structure in the early 1990s, and determined that the structure could potentially fail in the event of a large earthquake or flood. The State Coastal Conservancy, National Marine Fisheries Services, and California American Water determined that the best approach for safety and environmental health and restoration was to reroute the Carmel River and remove San Clemente Dam. The project was completed in 2015. Shown here is a view of the redistributed sediment from within the reservoir and from the rerouting of the river. For more information, see the San Clemente Dam Removal & Carmel River Reroute Project Website.

This study is part of the Sediment Transport in Coastal Environments research project.

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View from the sky looking at mouth of river with lots of sediment deposited at a beach.

Sediment Transport in Coastal Environments

Our research goals are to provide the scientific information, knowledge, and tools required to ensure that decisions about land and resource use, management practices, and future development in the coastal zone and adjacent watersheds can be evaluated with a complete understanding of the probable effects on coastal ecosystems and communities, and a full assessment of their vulnerability to natural...
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Natural Hazards Mission Area, Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program, Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center, Sediment Lab Suite and Carbon Analysis Laboratory, San Francisco Bay and Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Estuary
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Sediment Transport in Coastal Environments

Our research goals are to provide the scientific information, knowledge, and tools required to ensure that decisions about land and resource use, management practices, and future development in the coastal zone and adjacent watersheds can be evaluated with a complete understanding of the probable effects on coastal ecosystems and communities, and a full assessment of their vulnerability to natural...
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Mouth of the Elwha River during dam removal

Landscape Response to Disturbance

This project characterizes and measures sediment-related effects of landscape disturbances (such as major storms, drought, or wildfire) and river management. We focus primarily on the U.S. west coast, and our work relates to natural hazards and resource management.
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Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program, Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center, Sediment Lab Suite and Carbon Analysis Laboratory, Big Sur Landslides
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Landscape Response to Disturbance

This project characterizes and measures sediment-related effects of landscape disturbances (such as major storms, drought, or wildfire) and river management. We focus primarily on the U.S. west coast, and our work relates to natural hazards and resource management.
Learn More
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View from the sky of a large estuary with large and small waterways surrounded by villages and agriculture, hills in background.

Coastal watershed and estuary restoration in the Monterey Bay area

Objectives: Support further work by the USGS and collaborating federal, state, and local agencies and academic partners in analyzing the effectiveness of restoration work in coastal watersheds and estuaries in the Monterey Bay area. The USGS will play a supporting role in field efforts led by NOAA and California State University - Monterey Bay to measure physical and ecological changes in the...
By
Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program, Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center
link

Coastal watershed and estuary restoration in the Monterey Bay area

Objectives: Support further work by the USGS and collaborating federal, state, and local agencies and academic partners in analyzing the effectiveness of restoration work in coastal watersheds and estuaries in the Monterey Bay area. The USGS will play a supporting role in field efforts led by NOAA and California State University - Monterey Bay to measure physical and ecological changes in the...
Learn More
link
An estuary with many channels widening towards the sea through lush forests and grasslands, village in distance.

Columbia River estuary

This research is part of the project “Sediment Transport in Coastal Environments.” We aim to support regional sediment management in the Columbia River littoral cell by monitoring and modeling shoreline change, modeling fate of disposed dredged material, and studying bedform morphology.
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Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program, Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center
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Columbia River estuary

This research is part of the project “Sediment Transport in Coastal Environments.” We aim to support regional sediment management in the Columbia River littoral cell by monitoring and modeling shoreline change, modeling fate of disposed dredged material, and studying bedform morphology.
Learn More
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View from the air across a tidal march, mudflat, and channels with bay water to the right and a city in the background.

Sediment transport between estuarine habitats in San Francisco Bay

We investigate mechanisms of sediment transport, resuspension dynamics in shoals, wave evolution in the shallows, wave attenuation in marshes, and transport of sediment between mudflats and marshes. We produce data sets for calibration of and comparison with sediment transport models, including wave parameters, suspended sediment concentration, and sediment flux.
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Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program, Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center, San Francisco Bay and Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Estuary
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Sediment transport between estuarine habitats in San Francisco Bay

We investigate mechanisms of sediment transport, resuspension dynamics in shoals, wave evolution in the shallows, wave attenuation in marshes, and transport of sediment between mudflats and marshes. We produce data sets for calibration of and comparison with sediment transport models, including wave parameters, suspended sediment concentration, and sediment flux.
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Elwha River flowing through former Aldwell reservoir

USGS science supporting the Elwha River Restoration Project

The Elwha River Restoration Project has reconnected the water, salmon, and sediment of a pristine river and coast of the Olympic Peninsula of Washington.
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Ecosystems Mission Area, Natural Hazards Mission Area, Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program, Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center
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USGS science supporting the Elwha River Restoration Project

The Elwha River Restoration Project has reconnected the water, salmon, and sediment of a pristine river and coast of the Olympic Peninsula of Washington.
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Below are data releases associated with this project.

River-channel topography, grain size, and turbidity records from the Carmel River, California, before, during, and after removal of San Clemente Dam (ver. 2.0, March 2022)

The San Clemente Dam, built in the 1920s on the Carmel River in Monterey County, California, was removed during 2014 and 2015. The dam-removal project was the largest in California to date, and one of the largest in the U.S. This USGS data release presents data collected before, during, and after the removal of the dam. The data were collected to study how the river channel's topographic profiles
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Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program, Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center

River-channel topography, grain size, and turbidity records from the Carmel River, California, before, during, and after removal of San Clemente Dam

The San Clemente Dam, built in the 1920s on the Carmel River in Monterey County, California, was removed during 2014 and 2015. The dam-removal project was the largest in California to date, and one of the largest in the U.S. This USGS data release presents data collected before, during, and after the removal of the dam. The data were collected to study how the river channel's topographic profiles
By
Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program, Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center

Below are publications associated with this project.

Conceptualizing ecological responses to dam removal: If you remove it, what's to come?

One of the desired outcomes of dam decommissioning and removal is the recovery of aquatic and riparian ecosystems. To investigate this common objective, we synthesized information from empirical studies and ecological theory into conceptual models that depict key physical and biological links driving ecological responses to removing dams. We define models for three distinct spatial domains: upstre
Authors
J. Ryan Bellmore, George R. Pess, Jeffrey J. Duda, Jim E. O'Connor, Amy E. East, Melissa M. Foley, Andrew C. Wilcox, Jon J. Major, Patrick B. Shafroth, Sarah A. Morley, Christopher S. Magirl, Chauncey W. Anderson, James E. Evans, Christian E. Torgersen, Laura S. Craig
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Ecosystems Mission Area, Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program, Species Management Research Program, Arizona Water Science Center, Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center, Fort Collins Science Center, Geology, Minerals, Energy, and Geophysics Science Center, John Wesley Powell Center for Analysis and Synthesis, Oregon Water Science Center, Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center, Western Fisheries Research Center

Geomorphic evolution of a gravel‐bed river under sediment‐starved vs. sediment‐rich conditions: River response to the world's largest dam removal

Understanding river response to sediment pulses is a fundamental problem in geomorphic process studies, with myriad implications for river management. However, because large sediment pulses are rare and usually unanticipated, they are seldom studied at field scale. We examine fluvial response to a massive (~20 Mt) sediment pulse released by the largest dam removal globally, on the Elwha River, Was

Authors
Amy E. East, Joshua B. Logan, Mark C. Mastin, Andrew C. Ritchie, Jennifer A. Bountry, Christopher S. Magirl, Joel B. Sankey
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Natural Hazards Mission Area, Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program, Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center

Do we know how much fluvial sediment reaches the sea? Decreased river monitoring of U.S. coastal rivers

Given the present and future changing climate and human changes to land use and river control, river sediment fluxes to coastal systems are changing and will continue to change in the future. To delineate these changes and their effects, it is increasingly important to document the fluxes of river-borne sediment discharged to the sea. Unfortunately, broad-scale river sediment monitoring programs
Authors
Jonathan Warrick, John D. Milliman
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Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center

A regime shift in sediment export from a coastal watershed during a record wet winter, California: Implications for landscape response to hydroclimatic extremes

Small, steep watersheds are prolific sediment sources from which sediment flux is highly sensitive to climatic changes. Storm intensity and frequency are widely expected to increase during the 21st century, and so assessing the response of small, steep watersheds to extreme rainfall is essential to understanding landscape response to climate change. During record winter rainfall in 2016–2017, the
Authors
Amy E. East, Andrew W. Stevens, Andrew C. Ritchie, Patrick L. Barnard, Pamela L. Campbell‐Swarzenski, Brian D. Collins, Christopher H. Conaway
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Natural Hazards Mission Area, Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program, Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center, Organic Geochemistry Laboratory

Removal of San Clemente Dam did more than restore fish passage

No abstract available.
Authors
Thomas H. Williams, Amy E. East, Douglas P. Smith, David A. Boughton, Nate Mantua, Lee R. Harrison
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Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center

Geomorphic responses to dam removal in the United States – a two-decade perspective

Recent decades have seen a marked increase in the number of dams removed in the United States. Investigations following a number of removals are beginning to inform how, and how fast, rivers and their ecosystems respond to released sediment. Though only a few tens of studies detail physical responses to removals, common findings have begun to emerge. They include: (1) Rivers are resilient and resp
Authors
Jon J. Major, Amy E. East, Jim E. O'Connor, Gordon E. Grant, Andrew C. Wilcox, Christopher S. Magirl, Matthias J. Collins, Desiree D. Tullos
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Volcano Hazards Program, Volcano Science Center, John Wesley Powell Center for Analysis and Synthesis

Dam removal: Listening in

Dam removal is widely used as an approach for river restoration in the United States. The increase in dam removals—particularly large dams—and associated dam-removal studies over the last few decades motivated a working group at the USGS John Wesley Powell Center for Analysis and Synthesis to review and synthesize available studies of dam removals and their findings. Based on dam removals thus far
Authors
Melissa M. Foley, James Bellmore, James E. O'Connor, Jeffrey J. Duda, Amy E. East, Gordon G. Grant, Chauncey W. Anderson, Jennifer A. Bountry, Mathias J. Collins, Patrick J. Connolly, Laura S. Craig, James E. Evans, Samantha Greene, Francis J. Magilligan, Christopher S. Magirl, Jon J. Major, George R. Pess, Timothy J. Randle, Patrick B. Shafroth, Christian E. Torgersen, Desiree D. Tullos, Andrew C. Wilcox
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Ecosystems Mission Area, Natural Hazards Mission Area, Water Resources Mission Area, Volcano Hazards Program, Volcano Science Center, Forest and Rangeland Ecosystem Science Center, John Wesley Powell Center for Analysis and Synthesis, Oregon Water Science Center, Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center, Western Fisheries Research Center, Columbia River Research Laboratory (CRRL)

Short-term variability of 7Be atmospheric deposition and watershed response in a Pacific coastal stream, Monterey Bay, California, USA

Beryllium-7 is a powerful and commonly used tracer for environmental processes such as watershed sediment provenance, soil erosion, fluvial and nearshore sediment cycling, and atmospheric fallout. However, few studies have quantified temporal or spatial variability of 7Be accumulation from atmospheric fallout, and parameters that would better define the uses and limitations of this geochemical tra
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Christopher H. Conaway, Curt D. Storlazzi, Amy E. Draut, Peter W. Swarzenski
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Water Resources Mission Area, California Water Science Center

Suspended sediment and organic contaminants in the San Lorenzo River, California, water years 2009-2010

This report presents analyses of suspended sediment and organic contaminants measured during a two-year study of the San Lorenzo River, central California, which discharges into the Pacific Ocean within the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary. Most suspended-sediment transport occurred during flooding caused by winter storms; 55 percent of the sediment load was transported by the river during a
Authors
Amy E. Draut, Christopher H. Conaway, Kathy R. Echols, Curt D. Storlazzi, Andrew Ritchie
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Ecosystems Mission Area, Toxic Substances Hydrology, Contaminant Biology, Environmental Health Program, Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center

The role of effective discharge in the ocean delivery of particulate organic carbon by small, mountainous river systems

Recent research has shown that small, mountainous river systems (SMRS) account for a significant fraction of the global flux of sediment and particulate organic carbon (POC) to the ocean. The enormous number of SMRS precludes intensive studies of the sort conducted on large systems, necessitating development of a conceptual framework that permits cross‐system comparison and scaling up. Herein, we
Authors
R. A. Wheatcroft, M.A. Goni, J.A. Hatten, G.B. Pasternack, J.A. Warrick

Below are news stories associated with this project.

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Graduate Students View Evidence of Carmel River Recovery after First Large Dam Removal in California

On October 14, 2017, geologist Amy East of the USGS and biologist Tommy Williams of the NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service led a field trip to the...

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