EPA worked with partners to evaluate improvements to the salinity water quality monitoring network in the San Francisco Estuary. This report, Advancement of Salinity and Flow Monitoring in the San Francisco Bay Delta, describes the utility and approximate costs of adding coupled surface and near-bottom salinity water quality monitors along the axis of the San Francisco Estuary from Suisun Bay to Rio Vista on the Sacramento River. These improvements and associated telemetry could be added to the estuary for an estimated cost of $780K in capital costs and $500K/yr in operational, maintenance, and data processing costs. Increased resolution and modern instruments can generate data that greatly improve the precision of methods for determining compliance with water quality standards, advancing forecasting tools, and evaluating the effectiveness of management actions designed to optimize water supply deliveries while increasing populations of commercial, recreational, and forage fish species in the San Francisco Estuary.   

• Advancement of Salinity and Flow Monitoring in the San Francisco Bay Delta (PDF)(101 pp, 3 MB, February 2017, Contract No. EP099BOA001)
  This report describes the utility and approximate cost of expanding the salinity water quality monitoring network along the axis of the San Francisco Estuary from Suisun Bay to Rio Vista on the Sacramento River