About

History and Organization

The California Surface Water Ambient Monitoring Program (SWAMP) was created to fulfill the State Legislature’s mandate for a unifying program that would coordinate all water quality monitoring conducted by the State and Regional Water Boards. In addition, SWAMP is uniquely positioned to promote collaboration with other entities by proposing conventions related to monitoring design, measurement indicators, data management, quality assurance, and assessment strategies, so that data from many programs can be used in integrated assessments that answer critical management questions.

• Assembly Bill 982
  In response to the Legislature’s direction in Assembly Bill 982 (Statutes of 1999), the State Water Board prepared a Proposal for a Comprehensive Ambient Surface Water Quality Monitoring Program. That “Report to Legislature” served as the foundation of the SWAMP program. The Public Advisory Group authorized/required by AB 982 also advised the State Water Board’s TMDL and ‘Listing’ programs on the State Water Board’s ‘Listing Policy’ for impaired waters.
• Organizational Structure
  SWAMP is managed by a Roundtable of monitoring coordinators from the State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) and nine Regional Water Quality Control Boards. It has established relationships with scientists from the University of California, California State University, California Department of Fish and Game (CDFG), Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) and other State agencies who assist with monitoring design, implementation, quality assurance, data management, and assessment. In addition, SWAMP has undergone and responded to a Triennial programmatic scientific review, as well as undertaking periodic external reviews of various program components and projects.
  
• SWAMP prioritizes its activities based on the following assumptions:
  • Monitoring at both statewide and regional levels is necessary to protect water quality in California.
  • Monitoring is designed to support a network of information users that include state and local agencies, the regulated community, the interested public, and their elected representatives.
  • Monitoring efforts are prioritized.
  • SWAMP seeks to make the most efficient use of data collected by all Water Board programs, as well as the large amount of data collected by local agencies and the regulated community.
  • SWAMP monitoring evaluates the physical, chemical, and biological integrity of the State’s waters.
  • 2010 SWAMP Strategy: Update to the SWAMP’s Comprehensive Monitoring and Assessment Strategy to Protect and Restore California’s Water Quality – December 2010

Collaborative Partnerships

To maximize budgets, encourage more orchestrated monitoring efforts, and increase the pool of water quality information available to decision makers and enthusiasts alike, SWAMP has created, maintained and continues to encourage collaborative partnerships throughout the state. Some of these partnerships are at the statewide level, giving better answers for status and trends. Some are at the regional level, which allows for more targeted information related to the more regional climactic and geographic needs of the regulated communities across the state.

SWAMP has a Clean Water Team which works with Citizen Monitoring groups throughout the state.

More recently SWAMP has served in a key supporting role for implementing CA Senate Bill 1070, which includes the formation of the California Water Quality Monitoring Council and the associated Monitoring Collaboration Network.

• SWAMP Achievements and Collaborative Successes
  • Ecosystem Health, Water Board's Performance Report FY 11-12
  • SWAMP Achievements and Commitments
  • Some additional SWAMP Related Collaborative Successes

Mission and Goals

The SWAMP mission is to provide resource managers, decision makers, and the public with timely, high-quality information to evaluate the condition of all waters throughout California. SWAMP accomplishes this through carefully designed, externally reviewed monitoring programs, and by assisting other entities state-wide in the generation of comparable data that can be brought together in integrated assessments that provide answers to current management questions.

To accomplish this mission, SWAMP has identified the pieces necessary to successfully and sustainably meet the goals identified in our mission. We have created a Quality Assurance (QA) program, developed a standardized data storage system, created Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for sampling, have peer reviewed monitoring plans for each project, and continue to create a water quality indicator list to work from.

• SWAMP Program Goals and Vision Poster
• Assessment Questions
  Regardless of scope, all effective monitoring programs are designed to answer specific assessment questions asked by resource managers. SWAMP statewide and Regional monitoring programs are each designed to address one or more of the following assessment questions for defined water body types and beneficial uses:
  
  
  • Status: What is the overall quality of California’s surface waters?
  • Trends: What is the pace and direction of change in surface water quality over time?
  • Problem Identification: Which water bodies have water quality problems and which areas are at risk?
  • Diagnostic: What are the causes of water quality problems and where are the sources of those stressors?
  • Evaluation: How effective are clean water projects and programs?

  To use a medical analogy, the doctor may take your temperature, pulse, and blood pressure to assess your health status. Current measurements can be compared to your chart to determine trends, whether a condition is getting better or worse. Tests might be recommended to characterize a medical problem. Additional tests might be required to diagnose the cause. Finally, if treatment is prescribed, then follow up visits are necessary to evaluate the success of the program. These same questions must be answered on a routine basis by monitoring and assessment to maintain the health of the State’s aquatic resources.

• Indicators
  An indicator is a measurement, statistic, or value that identifies the presence or level of the factor affecting the environment. A set of such indicators and their trends point to the overall condition or quality of the environment. Indicators related to water quality describe the state of the environment for particular issues in a scientifically concise and easily understood manner. Each indicator evaluates a different set of conditions.
  • A Compilation of Water Quality Goals
  • SWAMP Water Quality Indicators

Program Elements

SWAMP has developed a tool for organizing the type of water quality information it needs to collect and/or collaborate on using a “Matrix” of major water body types and some basic beneficial use categories. The program uses this Matrix in two ways:

1. Looking at the range of water quality questions to address, an estimate can be made of other programs either currently collecting that information or with a potential for doing so
2. Evaluating resources available and prioritizing for need, SWAMP chooses those water body types and Beneficial Use categories it can begin to address, which ones could be addressed by collaborations or monitoring support to other entities, and which simply are beyond the scope of what can be accomplished in our current planning and funding horizon.

• 2010 SWAMP Strategy - Update to the SWAMP’s Comprehensive Monitoring and Assessment Strategy to Protect and Restore California’s Water Quality - December 2010
• 2005 SWAMP Strategy - A Comprehensive Monitoring and Assessment Strategy to Protect and Restore California's Water Quality - October 2005
• Tools
  • Tools for Assessing the Biological Integrity of Surface Waters
  • California Rapid Assessment Method (for wetlands)
  • Aquatic Invasive Species (resource pages)
• Data Storage & Access
  • California Environmental Data Exchange Network - CEDEN is a growing statewide cooperative effort of various groups involved in the water and environmental resources of the State of California. This network is open to federal, state, county and private organizations interested in sharing data throughout the state. The purpose of the CEDEN network is to allow the exchange of water and environmental data between groups and to provide access to the public.
  • CEDEN Fact Sheet
  • California Environmental Data Exchange Network Poster
• QA Program
  • SWAMP Quality Assurance Checklists
  • Advisor (expert system for Quality Assurance Project Plan development)
  • Advisor Poster
    

Need to know how to work with SWAMP?

To help meet the growing need for ways to standardize data collected, many groups receiving funds from the state are being encouraged or required to work with various SWAMP program elements when collecting and reporting their data. In this section, you can find several links to help with that process. They include:

• Reviewing the SWAMP Quality Assurance Program Plan
• Utilizing Quality Assurance Project Plan Tools (if required)
• Utilizing SWAMP Standard Operating Procedures (as needed)
• Utilizing the SWAMP Help Desk (as needed)
• Utilizing the SWAMP Advisor Expert System
• Getting Data into CEDEN

Reporting Results - Once data are collected, stored and analyzed, interpretive reports about that data may be a requirement of a grantor or funding agency, or of interest to the group collecting the data. SWAMP has formats for a number of products such as fact sheets and reports that might be helpful. Please go to the SWAMP Reports section of this Website, and a contact person is available with each product. Alternatively, contact people are identified in either the Clean Water Team or Regional Water Board in your area.

Another source of monitoring information and SWAMP projects is to sign up for our Email List Subscription service (select the SWAMP Water Quality Monitoring list).

Need SWAMP information for decision making?

• Data
• Reports
• Collaborative Efforts

Want to know who we are?

Water is the most precious natural resource in California; and its value depends on its quality. Cleaner water can be put to greater uses, and requires less treatment prior to use. Every year, hundreds of decisions are made that influence water quality, ranging from local development to statewide policy. These decisions involve hundreds of millions of dollars for water delivery, water treatment, pollution reduction programs, and habitat protection. Good decisions must be based on good information.

While many local, regional, and state agency programs collect water quality data for specific purposes, the Surface Water Ambient Monitoring Program (SWAMP) is the only statewide program tasked with assessing water quality in all of California’s streams, lakes, wetlands, estuaries, and coastal waters. SWAMP coordinates State and Regional Water Board monitoring throughout the State, and is in a unique position to collaborate with partner organizations to produce timely information through reports, fact sheets, Websites, and an extensive water quality data base – all targeted to support water resource management in California.

• Assessment Questions
  Regardless of scope, all effective monitoring programs are designed to answer specific assessment questions asked by resource managers. SWAMP statewide and Regional monitoring programs are each designed to address one or more of the following assessment questions for defined water body types and beneficial uses:
  • Status: What is the overall quality of California’s surface waters?
  • Trends: What is the pace and direction of change in surface water quality over time?
  • Problem Identification: Which water bodies have water quality problems and which areas are at risk?
  • Diagnostic: What are the causes of water quality problems and where are the sources of those stressors?
  • Evaluation: How effective are clean water projects and programs?

To use a medical analogy, the doctor may take your temperature, pulse, and blood pressure to assess your health status. Current measurements can be compared to your chart to determine trends, whether a condition is getting better or worse. Tests might be recommended to characterize a medical problem. Additional tests might be required to diagnose the cause. Finally, if treatment is prescribed, then follow up visits are necessary to evaluate the success of the program. These same questions must be answered on a routine basis by monitoring and assessment to maintain the health of the State’s aquatic resources.

• Statewide Surveys
  • Screening Study of Bioaccumulation in California Coastal Waters (2012)
  • Screening Study of Bioaccumulation in California Rivers & Streams (2011)
  • Two-year Screening Study of Bioaccumulation in California Lakes and Reservoirs (2009 & 2010)
  • Bioaccumulation of Pollutants in California Waters: A Review of Historic Data and Assessment of Impacts on Fishing and Aquatic Life - August 2008
  • California Monitoring and Assessment Program for Perennial Streams Poster

(Updated 5/14/13)