Document Details

Technical Workshop on Estuarine Habitat in the Bay Delta Estuary

Brock Bernstein | March 27th, 2012


The Technical Workshop on Estuarine Habitat in the Bay Delta Estuary was initiated by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), with support from the Aquatic Science Center (ASC), to obtain scientific input needed to inform EPA on California’s Comprehensive Review of the 2006 Water Quality Control Plan for the Bay Delta Estuary. Gathering a number of recognized experts on the hydrology and ecology of the Bay Delta was an efficient way to hear current knowledge on estuarine habitat, tools for modeling and assessing conditions, and how biological indicators and ecological processes respond to movement of the low salinity zone.

 More specifically, the purpose of the workshop was to:

Increase our collective understanding about the attributes of estuarine habitat, and the tools we have for protecting it

Characterize the response of biological indicators and ecological processes to changing locations of the low salinity zone (LSZ)

Generate scientific information that EPA and others can translate into recommendations that support the State’s Comprehensive Review of the 2006 Water Quality Control Plan (WQCP) for the Bay Delta Estuary

The following sections describe planning for the workshop and the workshop process itself. The workshop summary condenses the input from participants during the small workgroup sessions and the final plenary session. It captures the breadth of opinions, judgments, and viewpoints expressed without attempting to fact check statements, or reconcile / synthesize disagreements or contradictions. Finally, the facilitator’s report provides my personal impressions of the workshop and the degree to which it achieved its stated purposes.

Keywords

Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta, salinity