SWAMP - Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta

Central Valley Water Board SWAMP staff and resources are helping support the Bay Delta Team and the development of a Delta Regional Monitoring Program. The primary goal of the Delta RMP is to provide coordinated monitoring, reporting, and assessment of water quality throughout the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.

In 2011 the University of California, Santa Cruz completed a study on harmful cyanobacteria blooms in Clear Lake and the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. More information on this study is available on the Sacramento River Basin page.

Monitoring was conducted in 2011 and 2012 to collect information on the sources of pyrethroid insecticides to Cache Slough during spawning of the Delta smelt. Monitoring was conducted by the University of California, Berkeley and coordinated with the California Department of Water Resources and the Interagency Ecological Program.

• Final Publication
• Monitoring Plan
• QAPP

In 2008 and 2009, SWAMP funded a University of California, Berkeley study to assess the potential for aquatic life beneficial use impairment in the Delta due to the occurrence and toxicity of pyrethroid pesticides in the water column. Monitoring included both ambient Delta sites and major discharges, including stormwater drains, agricultural drains, and municipal wastewater treatments plants.

• Monitoring Plan: Sources, Seasonality, and Toxicity of Pyrethroid Pesticides in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta
• Findings: A handout summarizing the study approach and results
• Reports:
  • Urban and Agricultural Sources of Pyrethroid Insecticides to the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta of California (January 2010)
  • Focused Toxicity Identification Evaluations to Rapidly Identify the Cause of Toxicity in Environmental Samples (December 2009)

• Toxicity Mixing
  In 2010, SWAMP funded a University of California, Davis study to assess the mixture toxicity of key contaminants of concern in the Delta. In 2011, SWAMP augmented the study to include more testing on pyrethroid insecticides.
  • Final Report


• Sediment Toxicity Identification Evaluation (TIE)
  Another University of California, Davis study funded by SWAMP focused on developing improved methods for extracting and identifying organic chemicals from toxic sediments.
  • Final Report