Central Coast Long-term Environmental Assessment Network

AMS led the effort to design the Central Coast Long-term Environmental Assessment Network (CCLEAN) regional monitoring program and recently signed a five-year contract to provide ongoing technical direction and management. This program is funded by four municipal dischargers and an industrial discharger, under direction from the State of California Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board. CCLEAN activities focus on water quality issues, with an emphasis on measurement of contaminant inputs and effects in nearshore waters. Based upon a consensus-building approach, the program was designed to satisfy regulatory requirements, as well as to document the status and trends of important water quality indicators in the area.

CCLEAN is estimating loads of possible water quality stressors and effects in nearshore waters by sampling effluent, rivers and streams, mussels, sediments and benthic communities. Effluent for each municipal discharger and for each river is being sampled for persistent organic pollutants, nutrients, and suspended sediments using automated equipment to obtain 30-day flow-proportioned samples in the dry season and in the wet season. Sixteen streams and rivers are sampled monthly for nutrients, bacteria, and suspended sediments. Satellite imagery will be used to evaluate blooms of phytoplankton associated with discharges of high concentrations of nutrients. Mussels are being sampled at five locations to fill geographic gaps in other programs to measure persistent organic pollutants and bacteria. Sediment and benthic organisms are sampled for persistent organic pollutants once a year at eight sites within the depositional band that has been identified by U.S. Geological Survey in Monterey Bay.

In cooperation with California Department of Fish and Game (CDF&G), CCLEAN was recently awarded a grant from the California State Water Resources Control Board to measure concentrations of persistent organic pollutants in tissues of dead otters that have been brought to the CDF&G for complete necropsies. Concern for the status of the sea otter population has increased in recent years, as anticipated population growth has not materialized. An unusually high percentage of sea otters in the Central California region die of diseases and the study seeks to determine whether otters with higher concentrations of chemical contaminants might be more susceptible to diseases.