Surface Water Ambient Monitoring Program (SWAMP)

Statewide SWAMP Program

California Assembly Bill AB 982 (Chapter 495, Statutes of 1999) focuses State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) efforts on developing a comprehensive ambient surface water quality monitoring program. The information generated from the SWAMP program will serve two purposes at the State Level: it will provide a picture of the overall water quality throughout the State, and will better characterize problem sites and reference conditions, investigated through site-specific monitoring.

While both statewide and regional components are necessary to meet the goals of the SWAMP program, the consensus of State and Regional Board monitoring coordinators, who meet regularly as the Water Quality Monitoring Coordinating Committee, has been that current funding is not sufficient to adequately address both components independently. Until funding levels increase, each Regional Board will use their available resources to address water quality issues of greatest importance to the Region. For more information on the Statewide Program, please use the following link: http://www.waterboards.ca.gov/water_issues/programs/swamp

Central Valley RWQCB SWAMP Efforts

Region 5, the Central Valley Region, covers 40% of the State and stretches from the Oregon border to the northern tip of Los Angeles County (60,000 square miles). This area, which includes all or part of 38 of the State's 53 counties, also contains approximately 75% of the State's irrigated land. Three major basins have been delineated within this region, namely the Sacramento River, San Joaquin River, and Tulare Lake Basins. SWAMP efforts within each of the Basins has been developed to maximize monitoring frameworks already in place and leverage available resources. In general: the Upper Sacramento River Basin augmented monitoring efforts by local watershed groups; the Lower Sacramento River Basin focused initial efforts on special studies evaluating effluent dominated water bodies with broader monitoring to follow; the San Joaquin River Basin built its monitoring effort off of the existing framework utilized in the Grassland Bypass Project; and the Tulare Lake Basin focused on watersheds with known water quality impairments. For more detailed information on thesse efforts, please use the appropriate link from the following:

Summary of all Reg 5 SWAMP Activities through 2006
Upper Sacramento River Basin
Lower Sacramento River Basin
San Joaquin River Basin
Tulare Lake Basin
Please use the following links to view the Region 5 workplans:
Fiscal Year 2001-2002 (main document or tables)
Fiscal Year 2002-2003 (main document or tables)
Fiscal Year 2003-2004 (main document or tables)

• Overview of the Surface Water Ambient Monitoring Program, 101 KB, PDF (PDF Info)
  For more information, contact
  Karen Larsen at (916) 464-4646 or by email at klarsen@waterboards.ca.gov
  or Jeanne Chilcott at (916) 464-4788 or by email at jchilcott@waterboards.ca.gov.
• Water Quality Studies