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BACKGROUND
Through the San Gabriel River Regional
Monitoring Program (SGRRMP), the Watershed Council and partners implement monitoring
solutions that provide awareness to the health of the streams, lakes, and fish within
our watershed for beneficial uses to the community.
The SGRRMP is designed to answer five specific questions of interest to a broad range of stakeholders within the watershed:
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What is the environmental health of streams in the overall watershed?
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Are the conditions at areas of unique importance getting better or worse?
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Are receiving waters near discharges meeting water quality objectives?
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Is body contact recreation safe?
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Are fish safe to eat?
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The San Gabriel River Regional Monitoring Program (SGRRMP) began development in
2004 by multiple stakeholders representing major permittees, regulatory and management
agencies, and conservation groups. Development of the program was motivated by a
permit condition for the Los Angeles County Sanitation District. The program seeks
to increase awareness of issues at the watershed scale and improve the coordination
and integration of monitoring efforts for both compliance and ambient conditions.
The SGRRMP is a watershed-scale counterpart to existing larger-scale regional monitoring
efforts in the southern California region that seek to address questions and concerns
about regional conditions and trends (State Water Resources Control Board Surface
Water Ambient Monitoring Program, U.S. EPA’s Western Environmental Monitoring and
Assessment Program, and the Stormwater Monitoring Coalition). Incorporation of local
and site-specific issues within a broader watershed-scale perspective was and remains
one of the unique features of the SGRRMP. By considering ways to improve overall
cost effectiveness of monitoring efforts in the watershed, the plan includes reductions
of redundancies within and between existing monitoring programs. Efforts within
the program include targeted monitoring of contaminants of concern and adjustment
of monitoring locations and sampling frequencies to better respond to management
priorities.
Initiated in 2005, the multi-level monitoring framework combines probabilistic and
targeted sampling for water quality, toxicity, and bio-assessment. By 2007 indicators
to answer all five questions had been collected and evaluated. Initial results illustrate
clear patterns between the upper (undeveloped) portions and lower (developed) portions
of the watershed in terms of water quality and habitat condition. Finally, the results
will help identify areas where expanded monitoring or special studies should be
focused.
PROJECT PARTNERS
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AES (generating station)
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City of Downey
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Friends of the San Gabriel River
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LA & SG Rivers Watershed Council
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Los Angeles County Sanitation Districts
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Los Angeles County Department of Public Works
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Los Angeles Department of Water and Power
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Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board
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Orange County Stormwater Program
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Rivers and Mountains Conservancy
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San Gabriel Mountains Regional Conservancy
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Santa Ana Regional Water Quality Control Board
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SCCWRP
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US Army Corps of Engineers
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US EPA
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US Forest Service
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