Water Monitoring

The objectives of this specific study are to characterize the mixtures of current-use pesticides and pesticide degradates entering the Sacramento/San Joaquin Delta from its two main river sources over a period of 12 consecutive months.

Suspended solids are an important component of San Francisco Bay, California (USA) because they transport adsorbed toxic substances, provide habitat for benthic organisms, limit light availability and photosynthesis, and deposit in ports and waterways which require dredging. The U.S. Geological Survey has established a network of eight sites in San Francisco Bay at which suspended-solids...

Our group at the USGS continuously monitors suspended-sediment concentration (SSC), turbidity, dissolved oxygen, temperature, salinity, and water level at many sites throughout the San Francisco Bay (Bay) and the Sacramento-San Joaquin Rivers Delta (Delta). Our work began in 1988 to explore the spatial and temporal variability of water quality and sediment transport and to provide decision makers...

The USGS has been collecting specific conductance (salinity) and water temperature data in San Francisco Bay (SF Bay) since 1990. Data are typically collected at 5-10 fixed locations throughout the bay, every fifteen minutes, every minute of the day.

This project aims to characterize spatial heterogeneity for key water quality parameters, and pilot the use of underway-flowthrough mapping of biogeochemical properties as a cost-effective approach to monitoring.

USGS collects water quantity and quality data throughout the Bay and Delta by both continuous monitoring stations as well as by discrete sampling taken from boats and shorelines at established stations.