BASMAA Receiving Waters Program Testing

Project Description

The Bay Area Stormwater Management Agencies Association (BASMAA), is a consortium of the following nine San Francisco Bay Area municipal stormwater programs: 

• Alameda Countywide Clean Water Program

• Contra Costa Clean Water Program

• Fairfield-Suisun Urban Runoff Management Program

• Marin County Stormwater Pollution Prevention Program

• Napa Countywide Stormwater Pollution Prevention Program

• San Mateo Countywide Water Pollution Prevention Program

• Santa Clara Valley Urban Runoff Pollution Prevention Program

• Sonoma County Water Agency

• Vallejo Sanitation and Flood Control District

Under the leadership of BASMAA, the above agencies have recently begun pilot-testing a new Trash Monitoring Program in creeks, channels, rivers and SF Bay shorelines. The new program is an outgrowth of the municipal stormwater permit issued by the Regional Water Quality Control Board in 2015 and will provide baseline data on the levels of trash currently impacting local water ways. Data collected will also assist public agencies in better understanding the sources of trash in creeks and the Bay and whether they can see the positive impacts of their on-land actions to reduce trash and litter, such as installing trash interception devices, enhancing street sweeping, and prohibiting the distribution of litter-prone items (e.g. plastic bags). Regionwide, over 230 sites are being monitored using new protocols developed collectively by Bay Area public agencies. To-date, Bay Area municipalities have conducted over 150 monitoring events and over 650 more are planned to occur between 2018 and 2020. Trash monitoring data will eventually be publicly-available through the California Environmental Data Exchange Network (CEDEN). A final report documenting the initial results of the Program and lessons learned will be submitted to the Water Board by July 2020. The Trash Monitoring Plan and protocols are currently available at www.basmaa.org. The project team is coordinating its field testing with BASMAA’s and SMC’s monitoring plans to leverage the information collected through well-timed effort. This summer’s monitoring season is already upon us, and these program partners are preparing to visit the field.

For more information, please contact BASMAA's Geoff Brousseau: geoff@brosseau.us