Quality Assurance Program Plan for The Regional Monitoring Program for Water Quality in San Francisco Bay

The Regional Monitoring Program for Water Quality in San Francisco Bay (RMP) was created to provide long-term monitoring information on ecosystem health in the Bay. The impetus for the program development was a resolution by the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Board to require dischargers in the Bay Area regulated under the National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) program to participate in regional monitoring. Contribution to the Program constitutes compliance with the requirement to participate. Elimination of certain permit requirements for individual permits offset the requirement for continued participation. 

The RMP began as a pilot study in 1989 and has been collecting water, sediment, and biological tissue data since 1993. The Status and Trends component of the RMP routinely collects monitoring data on these environmental matrices. The San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board (Water Board) uses Status and Trends data to assist in regulatory decision-making, such as for determining impairment (303(d)) listing, NPDES permit conditions, and estimating Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDL) of various pollutants needed to protect ecosystem and human health. The data are also useful for monitoring and modeling the effectiveness of past and planned management actions. 

The overarching goal of the program is to collect data and communicate information about water quality in San Francisco Bay to support management decisions. The RMP, in consultation with its stakeholders, the Technical Review Committee, and the Steering Committee refined the management questions in May 2008.