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| Water Quality Testing |
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| Home |
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| General Facts |
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| A variety of agencies and private organizations are currently conducting water quality testing at Lake Berryessa. |
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| History/ Background |
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| Bureau of Reclamation The Bureau of Reclamation previously sampled for MTBE in the lake and biologicals near the resorts, but has not done so for at least one year. They currently sample for E. and F. coliform once a month, focusing their efforts on the streams during the winter and the lake during the summer. They also monitor lake and stream physical parameters at these sites including the following: dissolved oxygen, electrical conductance, water temperature F, pH, and turbidity. Specifically, they collect data from the lake sites on the third Wednesday of each month and from the stream sites on the first Wednesday of each month. Collection from streams occurs when they have significant flow (e.g. during the rainy season for small streams). Open water sites are selected based on threat-activities occurring in the region, with the boat operator from the Berryessa Office potentially providing input. During the swimming/boating season they may take 13 samples from the lake and three samples from the streams. During the rainy season they may take eight samples from the lake and eight samples from the streams. A MPN total/fecal/Ecoli coliform QA reference sample will be added to the lake coliform samples collected and a QA blank sample will be added to the stream coliform samples collected. The number of samples collected may change with the threat to human health. Some of the lake sites they have regularly tested in the past include the following: Boy Scout Camp, Putah Swim beach, Rancho Monticello Resort area, Berryessa Marina, Acorn Beach, Coyote Beach, Gun Ranch, Spanish Flat, Carpel Cove, Steele Park Resort, Pleasure Cove, and Makley Cove. Some of the stream sites they have regularly tested in the past include the following: Pope Creek, Eticuera Creek, Cappell Creek, Wragg Creek, Steele Canyon, Quarry Canyon, and Smittle Creek. They have been conducting these tests for the past 3 or 4 years. They plan on putting the results on a website as soon as possible. For more information see the April 2004 edition of the Lake Berryessa Black Book (Attachment #1). |
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| Geology/ Soils |
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| Vegetation |
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| Wildlife |
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| Recreation |
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| Water Quality Testing |
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| Other Water Quality Projects |
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| Environmental Concerns |
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| Events & Opportunities |
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| Partnerships |
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| Emergency Release Testing/Clean-up Procedures The Bureau of Reclamation is the primary agency responding to spills or releases at Lake Berryessa. They do not have a standard response protocol or procedure because each event is different. If a spill/release is detected they will initially send their own staff out to conduct immediate testing before the chemicals dissipate. The BR will also contract a water quality testing professional from Caltest to respond to the spill, though they usually take a few hours or even a full day to respond. They contract an employee from Caltest to give them additional evidence in case the incident is taken to court. Spills or releases are sometimes reported to the Bureau of Reclamation by the resorts and sometimes they are discovered during regular testing/monitoring. Gasoline spills are generally contained by the resorts themselves using absorbent pads and barriers. The Standard Operating Procedures for spill/release response are tied to the resort’s contracts which are very old. When/if their contracts are renewed, new Standard Operating Procedures (SOP’s) will be put in place. The Bureau of Reclamation is in the process of developing a nationwide set of SOP’s that they hope will be ready for implementation within a couple years. |
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| Napa County Environmental Management NCEM manages water quality information gathered from underground storage tanks located at the resorts. NCEM began gathering testing information from these sites in 1989. Active testing currently takes place at Putah Creek Resort, Rancho Monticello and Steel Park Resort. The testing at the resorts is usually conducted quarterly. They occasionally test the lake itself depending on conditions. They are trying to determine whether or not contamination from underground storage tanks is reaching the lake. The testing protocol is determined by the Regional Water Quality Control Board. Typically TPH as gasoline, diesel, and motor oil are included in the monitoring. They all test for the constituents listed in the top box of the attached sheet entitled “Gasoline and Related Compounds” (Attachment #2). Other constituents such as alcohols, lead scavengers and volatile halocarbons are required if warranted. Each resort that draws water from the lake also does its own water quality testing for a variety of parameters, both before intake and prior to distribution. The resorts either conduct the testing themselves or contract government approved labs to do the testing for them. Results are then given to the Napa County Environmental Management office. There are three resorts that currently take water from the lake and conduct water quality tests that are reported to NCEM; they are Putah Creek Resort, Markley Cove and Lake Berryessa Marina. Depending on the constituents being looked at, tests are conducted once a year, once every three years or once every five years. See the Source Chemical Monitoring Requirements list attached to the document for a complete list of constituents and their testing frequency. |
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| California Department of Health Services CDHS requires the utilities to conduct water tests and send the results to them. They do not conduct any of their own testing at Lake Berryessa. |
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| Napa Resource Conservation District The NRCD does not have any active sampling sites in the Lake Berryessa basin right now, though they did conduct some water quality sampling there historically. They are beginning a water quality and stream gaging program in Pope Creek and Capell Creek, above the receiving waters of Lake Berryessa, in January of 2005. These two monitoring sites will capture virtually all irrigated farmland runoff, with little or no background inputs from other land uses. California Department of Healthy Services has agreed to continue to supply this group with a data base of Lake Berryessa test results for several pesticides known to be used in Napa County. The NRCD is working for a consortium of landowners in the Putah creek watershed in order to satisfy a new regulation for irrigated agricultural land requiring seasonal water quality monitoring. They will collect samples three times during the rainy season; probably in January, March and May. They will be testing the following parameters: flow, pH, specific conductance, DO, temp, color, turbidity, TDS, TSS, TOC, and maybe some toxicity measures if required. |
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| Regional Water Quality Control Board The RWCD does not conduct any direct monitoring of Lake Berryessa or any of the associated streams and rivers. They do conduct monthly or quarterly monitoring and reporting of effluents and discharges from the resorts into their wastewater treatment facilities and ponds. They monitor water quality parameters associated with domestic water discharge such as TDS, nitrate as nitrogen, minerals, BOD, TKN, TCO, dissolved oxygen, pH, and free boards (surface level of liquid to the top of the burm - don’t want pond to overflow). They monitor several different sites in the region, and they monitor different parameters at each site depending on the Monitoring Reporting Program tied to each facility’ s permit. This information is available to the public if you make an appointment to see the relevant case files. They also determine the testing protocol for the underground storage tanks at each resort and they occasionally require lake samples to be taken in an attempt to determine if contamination from these tanks is reaching the lake. |
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| California Rural Water Association This group does not conduct any water quality testing at Lake Berryessa, nor do they receive or store any water quality testing results collected from other organizations. |
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| Upper Putah Creek Stewardship In December 2004 the Upper Putah Creek Stewardship began a stream monitoring program that involves sampling 20 sites over the next two years. At each site they pick three separate locations and take three macroinvertebrate samples using a kick net. The samples are sent to a professional lab for analysis and the results will be reported to the California Water Resources Control Board and hopefully to SWAMP as well. In 2005 they are hoping to expand the testing to include monthly sampling of physical parameters such as temperature, dissolved oxygen, pH, sediment and total dissolved solids at a variety of stream sites. They also hope to ascertain mercury levels at sampling sites by bioassaying some of the bugs they collect. |
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| Blueridge Berryessa Project / Putah-Cache Bioregion Project Neither of these projects currently includes any kind of monitoring. Rather, these projects are consortiums of people interested in these broad areas. But, the project’s website http: //bioregion.ucdavis.edu provides information about historic monitoring conducted in these regions. Some of the monitoring projects include the following: riparian inventory and biomonitoring projects; distribution and ecology of Putah Creek fish projects (larval fish, Chinook, Perch, Hitch, Tule Perch, etc.); a wood duck study; a California Quail restoration study; a feral house cat ecology study; an avian survey; a small mammal survey; a vegetation survey; an aquatic funnel trapping survey; and a pitfall trapping survey. |
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| Solano County Water Agency This agency prepares a Sanitary Survey for Lake Berryessa every five years. The survey contains information about the health of the watershed, potentially contaminating activities, source water assessments (a more direct look at where the water comes from and what levels of protection are provided to protect it from potentially contaminating activities) and lists current water quality testing activities and results. Also within this document specific Best Management Practices, such as designating buffer zones and planning environmental education programs, are suggested for implementation. |
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| Lake Berryessa Watershed Partnership |